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LESLIE'S  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

■reater  New  York 

B  Y 

« 

DANIEL  VAN  PELT 


VOLUME  I 


NEW  YORK  TO  THE  CONSOLIDATION 


ARKELL   PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
(judge  building) 

110  Fifth  Avenue 
NEW  YORK,  U.  S.  A. 


Copyright,  1898 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 


VOLUME  I  . 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  I 

Discovery  and  Settlement  (1609-1633)       .....  1 

The  Site  of  the  City — Early  Voyagers — Discovery  by  Hudson — Dutch  Arctic 
Exploration  and  the  Dutch  East  India  Company — Christiaensen  and  Adrian  Block 
— Early  Dutch  Forts — Usselinx — West  India  Company — Walloons,  First  European 
Settlers  on  Manhattan  Island — Hulst  Introduces  Cattle — Governors  May  and 
Verhulst — Early  Government — Director  Minuit — Purchase  of  Manhattan  Island 
— Early  Educational  and  Religious  Interests — Early  Industries  and  Commerce — 
First  Shipbuilding — The  Patroonships. 

CHAPTER  II 

Under  the  Dutch  Flag  (1633-1664)   27 

Director  Van  Twiller — English  Ship  Braves  the  Governor — Statistics  of  Com- 
merce— "  Bouweries  " — Domine  Bogardus — Van  Twiller  Dismissed — Director 
Kieft — Notable  Patroons — Anne  Hutchinson  and  Lady  Moody — Father  Jogues — 
Indian  Wars — The  Kieft-Bogardus  Feud — Director  Stuyvesant — Remonstrance  of 
the  "  Nine  Men  " — Steps  Toward  Municipal  Self-government — First  Representa- 
tive Assembly — Trouble  with  Swedes  in  Delaware  and  English  on  Long  Island — 
Indian  War — Description  of  the  City  Under  Stuyvesant — Streets  and  Canals — 
Commerce — Provincial  Currency — Immigration — Early  Religious  Sects. 

CHAPTER  III 

The  City  Becomes  English  (1664-1688)   59 

Rival  English  and  Dutch  Claims- — Surrender  of  the  City  to  Nicolls's  Fleet — The 
Last  of  Stuyvesant — Reorganization  of  City  Government — Thomas  Willett  First 
Mayor — New  Judicial  System — First  Postal  System — First  Merchants'  Exchange — 
The  First  Club— New  York  Re-captured  by  the  Dutch  and  Christened  New  Orange 
— The  City  Passes  Again  Under  the  English  by  Treaty — Dutch  Recalcitrants — 
Markets  and  Inns — Industries,  Commerce,  and  Currency — Description  of  the  City — 
Governor  Dongan  and  the  First  Charter  of  New  York  City — Consolidation  of 
Provinces,  Andros  Again  Governor — Church  Interests — Witchcraft — Education. 


11 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV 

A  Clash  of  Parties  (1688-1710)   85 

Accession  of  William  of  Orange  to  the  English  Throne — Militia  Captains  Hold 
the  City  for  William  of  Orange — Popular  Government  Under  Leisler — Bayard's 
Opposition — His  Trial  and  Pardon — Arrival  of  Governor  Sloughter — Leisler  and 
Milbornc  Kxecuted  —  Governor  Fletcher — Leisler's  Memory  Officially  Vindicated — 
Piracy — Captain  Kidd  —  First  Printer  in  New  York — Growth  of  the  City — Trinity 
Church  Established — Governors  Hellomont,  Cornbury,  and  Lovelace — Corrupt 
Practices  of  Cornbury — New  York  a  Century  After  Hudson's  Discovery — Education 
— Negro  Slavery — -Wealth  of  the  Citizens — Sabbath  Observance. 


CHAPTER  V 

Immigration  and  Journalism  (1710-1743)     .       .       .       .  .112 

German  Immigration  from  the  Palatinate  During  Governor  Hunter's  Administra- 
tion— Party  Divisions  on  Voting  Supplies — Governor  Burnet  Marries  Miss  Van 
Home — The  Montgomerie  Charter — The  City  Described — Acting  Governor  Van 
Dam — Cosby's  Suit  Against  Van  Dam — Beginning  of  Newspaper  Criticism  of 
Government — Zenger  Trial,  the  Freedom  of  the  Press  Maintained — The  '•  Negro 
Plot" — Growth  of  the  City — Fire  Brigade — Ferry  Privileges — Early  Markets — 
Commerce — Religious  Interests — Religious  Toleration — Sanitary  Conditions  and 
Epidemics. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  Colonial  Capital  (1743-1761)    141 

Social  Life  in  New  York — Governor  George  Clinton's  Conflict  with  the  Popular 
Assembly — Feud  Between  Clinton  and  De  Lancey — Governor  Osborn  Commits 
Suicide — Lieutenant-!  rovernor  De  Lancey — Lieutenant-Governor  Colden — New 
York  and  the  French  and  Indian  War — Packet  and  Mail  Service  -Commerce  - 
Increase  of  Churches — The  "Great  Awakening" — Columbia  College  Founded — 
Society  Library — Description  of  the  City — Early  .Journalism — Clubs — Concerts — 
Early  Theaters — Dress  of  the  Period — Beginnings  of  the  Medical  Profession — 
Horse  Racing — Notable  Boat-race — Washington's  First  Visit  to  New  York — Cor- 
rection of  the  Calendar. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Preparing  for  Independence  (1761-1775)   168 

Method  of  Colonial  Taxation  to  Meet  Expenses  of  French  and  Indian  War  Sows 
the  Seeds  of  Revolution — I'se  of  Stamped  Paper  Proposed  Organization  of  "Sons 
of  Liberty  " — The  Stamp  Act  Congress  in  New  York  City,  17<m — Demonstration 
Against  the  Stamp  Act — Burning  of  Major  James's  Villa — Burning  of  Stamped 
Paper — Repeal  of  Stamp  Act  and  Levying  of  Port  Duties — Governor  Trvon — New 
York  "Tea  Party" — Unfairness  of  New  England  Historians  Concerning  New 
York's  Part  in  Anti-Tea  Demonstrations — Colonial  Congress  of  1774 — Collisions 
Between  Troops  and  Citizens — Conflicts  over  the  "  Liberty  Pole  "  -Youthful  Activity 
of  Alexander  Hamilton  Complexion  of  New  York  .Journals — The  News  of  Lexing- 
ton and  Concord — Religious  Activity— New  York  Hospital  Founded  —  Wealth  and 
Social  Display — Streets  and  Street-lighting. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


ill 


CHAPTER  VIII 


PAGI 


In  the  Hands  of  the  Enemy  (1775-1783) 


.  197 


Min  imis  Willett  Prevents  the  Carrying  Off  of  Anns — Washington  Passes  Through 
New  York  En  Route  to  Boston — Patriot  Militia  Capture  the  Battery  Guns — General 
Putnam  Assumes  Command  in  New  York — Washington  Arrives — Fortifications  and 
Disposition  of  Troops — First  Celebration  of  Independence  Day  —  British  Ships  Pass 
up  the  Hudson — Howe's  Forces  Before  New  York — Battle  of  Long  Island  and 
Washington's  Withdrawal  of  His  Forces  to  Manhattan  Island — Battle  of  Harlem 
Heights — Capture  of  Fort  Washington — British  Military  Rule  in  New  York  City — 
A  Fire  Destroys  Trinity  Church  and  Hundreds  of  Houses — Execution  of  Nathan 
Hale — Cruel  Treatment  of  American  Prisoners — The  End  of  the  War — Evacua- 
tion of  New  York- — Washington's  Farewell  to  His  Officers — Summary  of  Effects 
Upon  the  City  of  British  Occupation  and  Military  Rule. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Federal  Capital  (1784-1807)   227 


Whigs  and  Tories — Hamilton  Pleads  Against  Persecution  of  Tories — Formula- 
tion and  Adoption  of  Constitution  of  the  United  States — Struggle  to  Secure  Its 
Ratification  by  New  York — Notable  Ratification  Demonstration — New  York  the 
First  Federal  Capital — Washington  Publicly  Received  and  Inaugurated  as  First 
President  of  the  United  States — Social  and  Official  Functions  in  the  New  Capital — 
Rise  of  Political  Parties — Commercial  Treaty  with  Great  Britain — Demonstration 
Upon  Death  of  Washington — Hamilton-Burr  Feud  and  Duel — City  Government  of 
New  York  Under  the  United  States — Yellow  Fever  Epidemic — Growth  of  the  City 
— Industries  and  Commerce — Development  of  Journalism — Organizations  and  So- 
cieties— "  Doctors'  Riot." 


Fulton's  Steamboat — Steam  Utilized  for  Ferry-boats — Effect  of  Embargo  Act — 
War  of  1812 — Wrelcome  of  Peace — Yellow  Fever  Again — Visit  of  Lafayette — Erie 
Canal — Celebration  Upon  Its  Completion — Park  and  Street  Improvement — Church 
Development  in  the  City — Catholicism  in  New  York — Public  School  System — ■ 
Commerce  and  Finance — Mayors  of  the  Period — Present  City  Hall  Erected — 
\\  ashington  Irving  as  Municipal  Chronicler —  Thomas  Paine — Theaters. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Becoming  the  Commercial  Capital  (1826-1842)    ....  293 


Comparison  Between  New  York  and  European  Capitals — Slavery  in  New  York 
Abolished  in  1827 — Scourge  of  Cholera — Notable  Fires  in  New  York  City — The 
Great  Fire  of  1835 — Albert  Gallatin — Panic  of  1837 — Immigration  from  Europe — 
Irish  Influence  in  New  York  Politics — First  Croton  Aqueduct — Mayoralty  Made 
Popularly  Elective,  1834 — "  Election  Riot" — "  Abolition  Riot " — "Stone-cutters' 
Riot  " — "  Five  Points  Riot  " — "  Bread  Riot  " — Introduction  of  Cheap  Daily  News- 
papers, Sun,  Herald,  Tribune,  Times,  World — "  Know-nothingism  " — Churches  and 
Schools — Art  Development,  National  Academy  of  Design — Theaters — Visit  of 
Dickens — Street  Improvement. 


t 


CHAPTER  X 


Invention  and  Enterprise  (1807-1825) 


.  259 


IN- 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    XII  PAGE 

Increasing  the  Facilities  of  Communication  (1842-1857)  .  326 

Social  and  Commercial  Revolution  Effected  by  the  'Steamboat,  Railroad,  and 
Telegraph — Invention  and  Introduction  of  the  Telegraph  by  a  New  York  Artist — 
War  with  Mexico — The  Fire  of  1845 — Second  Visitation  of  Cholera — Stevens 
Improves  the  Steamboat — Ship-building  in  New  York — -Yacht  America  Brings  the 
Queen's  Cup  to  America— Steam  Navigation  on  the  Ocean — The  Building  of  Rail- 
roads— Panic  of  1857 — Unsavory  Notoriety  of  the  "  Five  Points  " — Palatial  Resi- 
dences— Church  Architecture — Fatal  Panic  in  a  School-building — Fashionable 
Society — Forrest-Mac  ready  Feud  and  the  As  tor  Place  Riot — Visit  of  Kossuth — 
Other  Distinguished  Visitors — Trade  of  Inland  Cities  Centered  in  New  York — 
Changes  in  Municipal  Government  under  Charter  of  1849 — Deterioration  in 
Character  of  Municipal  Officials — Rival  Police  Systems — Immigration — Suburbs 
of  New  York. 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  City's  Higher  Life  (1850-1800)   358 

Events  to  1860 — Attempts  to  Lay  the  Atlantic  Cable — First  Japanese  Embassy 
Visits  New  York — The  Great  Eastern — The  Prince  of  Wales— Abraham  Lincoln  in 
New  York  —  Evidences  of  Higher  Life — Libraries — New  York  Historical  Society— 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York — Cooper  Institute — Literary  Periodicals  and 
Authors — -Washington  Irving — James  Fenimore  Cooper — Cuban  C.  Yerplanck — 
George  Bancroft — Fitz  Greene  Halleck — Charles  Fenno  Hoffman — X.  P.  Willis 
— George  P.  Morris — Edgar  A.  Poe — Joseph  Rodman  Drake — Davidson  Sisters — 
Lydia  Alalia  Child — Warner  Sisters — Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Kirkland — Cary  Sisters — 
American  Academy  of  Fine  Arts — American  Art  Union — Architecture — Crystal 
Palace — Development  of  Theaters — Jenny  Lind — Creation  of  Central  Park — Grin- 
nell  Arctic  Expeditions — Benevolent  Institutions — Religions  "  Revival  "  of  1857-58. 

CHAPTER  XIV 

The  Crisis  of  War  (1801-1865)    392 

Secession — Mayor  Fernando  Wood  Proposes  the  Creation  of  a  "Free  City" — 
Pine  Street  Meeting  to  Remonstrate  witli  Southern  Secessionists  —  New  Yorker 
Peter  Hart  at  Fort  Sumter — Seventh  Regiment  Departs  for  WaiJiington- 
Patriotism  of  Chamber  of  Commerce— Union  Square  Meeting  and  Union  Defense 
Committee — Mayor  Wood  Declares  for  the  Union  Effect  of  the  Bull  Run  Defeat 
— Merriinac  and  Monitor — Patriotism  of  New  York  Women — Proclamation  of 
Emancipation — Union  League  Club  Organized — Service  of  Distinguished  New 
Yorkers  Abroad    -Draft  Riot — Incendiary  Plot,  18(54 — Assassination  of  Lincoln. 

CHART  EE  XV 

Ridden  by  Ring  Rule  (1866-1873)   424 

Mass-meeting  in  Support  of  President  Johnson — Successful  Laying  of  Atlantic 
Cable — Trans-continental  Railroads — Visits  of  an  English  and  a  Russian  Prince — 
Presidential  Campaign  of  1S7'J  and  Deatli  of  Horace  Greeley — Career  of  Tweed — 
The  "Tweed  Ring"  and  Its  Overthrow — Two  "  Black  Fridays  " — '•  Orange  Riots" 
Of  1H70  and  1871— Paid  Fire  Department  Established— Creation  of  Board  of  Health 

Deaths  of  Notable  Journalists,  Henry  J.  Raymond,  James  Gordon  Bennett — 
William  Cullen  Bryant — Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  and 
Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice  -Sorosis —Notable  Buildings — Churches — 
Public  Schools — Normal  College — Street  Improvements. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 


v 


CHAPTER   XVI  PAGE 
The  City  Crosses  the  Harlem  River  (1874-1883)      .       .       .  454 

Early  History  of  Harlem  Village — Effect  of  Elevated  Railroads — Part  of  West- 
chester County  Annexed  in  1873 — Account  of  This  Region — Bridging  the  Harlem 
River — Celebration  July  4,  1876 — Tilden-Hayes  Campaign  and  Contest — Garfield- 
Conkling  Feud — Centennial  Celebration  of  British  Evacuation  of  New  York — Brook- 
lyn Bridge  Completed,  1883 — Panic  on  the  Bridge — Grand  Central  Depot — Bartholdi 
Statue  of  Lafayette  Preseuted  to  New  York  by  France — Tunnel  Accident  Beneath 
the  Hudson — Moody  and  Sankey  Revival  of  1876- — Commerce  and  Finance — Phe- 
nomenal Clearing-IIouse  and  Industrial  Figures — Art  Collections — Death  of  A.  T. 
Stewart,  Peter  Cooper,  and  Win.  E.  Dodge. 

CHAPTER  XVII 
A  Century  of  Union  (1884-1889)   484 

Election  of  Cleveland  as  President — Arctic  Explorer  Greeley  Rescued — Death 
of  General  Grant — His  Funeral — Blasting  of  "Hell  Gate" — Bartholdi  Statue  of 
Liberty  Presented  by  France — Aldermanic  Bribery  Cases  Connected  with  Franchise 
for  Broadway  Street  Railway — Centennial  Celebration  of  Inauguration  of  Washing- 
ton as  President — Mayors  Following  the  Overthrow  of  the  Tweed  Ring — The  "  Bliz- 
zard" of  1888 — Death  of  Conkling — Death  of  William  H.  Vanderbilt — Increase  of 
Population  and  Inadequacy  of  Church  and  School  Accommodations — Effect  of 
"  Safety  "  Bicycle  on  Social  Life — -Failure  of  Grant  and  Ward. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
Remembering  the  Discovery  of  America  (1890-1894)         .       .  506 

Mayoralty  Elections  of  Recent  Years — Municipal  Corruption  and  the  "  Lexow  " 
Legislative  Investigation — Committee  of  Seventy — Overthrow  of  Tammany  Gov- 
ernment and  Election  of  Mayor  Strong — New  Croton  Aqueduct — Growth  in  Pop- 
ulation— Era  of  Tall  Buildings — Church  Architecture — Salvation  Army — Christian 
Endeavor  Convention — New  Madison  Square  Garden — Immigration — Theaters — 
Suburban  Seaside  Resorts — International  Yacht  Races — Illustrations  in  Daily  News- 
papers— Colonization  of  Business  Interests — Panic  of  1893 — Americanization  of 
Inman  Ocean  Steamship  Line — Ocean  "  Greyhounds  "  Built  by  the  Cramps  at  Phil- 
adelphia— World's  Fair,  1893,  Goes  to  Chicago — Quadri-Centennial  Celebration  of 
Discovery  of  America  in  New  York — Naval  Demonstration. 

CHAPTER  XIX 

The  Climax  of  the  Greater  New  York  (1895-1897)         .       .  527 

Mayor  Strong's  Reform  Administration — Street-cleaning  Department — The  In- 
ternational Yacht  Race  of  1895 — The  Currency  Issue  in  Presidential  Campaign  of 
1896 — Grant's  Tomb  Dedicated — New  York  Compared  with  European  Capitals — 
Palatial  Residences — Hotels — Department  Stores — Armories — The  New  Speedway — 
Plans  for  Underground  Railroad — Fatal  Heat  of  1896 — The  Tenement  Problem — 
A  Last  Glimpse  at  the  City's  Higher  Life — University  Extension — Parks — Museums 
Music — Public  Library — Colleges — The  Climax  of  the  Greater  New  York. 


LIST  OF  STEEL-ENGRAVINGS. 


FACE  PAGE 


Peter  Cooper  Title 

Peter  Stuyvesant   112 

John  Jay  -  196 

Alexander  Hamilton   296 

Washington  Irving   422 


ILLUSTRATIONS  INSERTED.  facepagh 

Map  of  Grants  of  Village  Lots,  1642   26 

Madison  Avenue  and  Fourth  Avenue  Bridges  Across  the  Harlem  100 
View  from  Drive  Above  Morningside  Park;  Near  The  Scene  of  t  he 

Battle  of  Harlem  Heights   212 

Procession  of  Navy  of  All  Nations.  April  26,  1893;  Columbian 

Celebration   302 

The  Armory  of  71st  Regiment,  X.  (1.  S.  X.  Y   554 

ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  TEXT.  page 

The  Half  Moon  in  1609   3 

City  and  Harbor  of  Amsterdam   4 

Part  of  Block's  "  Figurative  "  Map.  1014   8 

West  India  Company's  House  in  Amsterdam   11 

A  Dutch  Windmill.   13 

Ship  Xew  Netherland   15 

The  Purchase  of  Manhattan  Island   17 

Fac  simile  of  Schaghen  Letter   23 

West  India  Company's  Storehouse   24 

An  Old  Dutch  House   25 

Earliest  Map  of  Xew  York   27 

Captain  David  Pieterz  De  Vries   29 

Water  Gate.  Foot  of  Wall  Street   33 

Xew  Amsterdam  in  1656   35 

Church  and  Governor's  House  in  Fort   36 

Palisades  Along  Wall  Street   39 

Stuyvesant  Pear  Tree   41 

Canal  in  Broad  Street   43 

Stuyvesant's  House  in  the  "  Bouwerie  "   16 

Stadt's  Herberg  or  City  Tavern  (Afterward  City  Hall)   47 

"  White  Hall,"  Stuyvesant's  Town  House   49 

Stuyvesant  I  )es1  roving  Xi<  holls's  Letter   53 

The  "Duke's  Plan"   60 

Stuyvesant  Tablet  in  W  all  of  St.  Mark's  Church   62 

Burgomaster  Steenwvck's  House   04 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

The  Kip  House   66 

Admiral  Cornelis  Evertseu    69 

The  Strand,  now  Whitehall  Street   73 

City  Hall  and  Great  Dock   75 

Old  New  York  Houses   77 

City's  Seal  of  1686   80 

De  Sille  House   83 

Philipse  Manor  House   86 

Leisler's  Residence    89 

Autograph  Letter  of  Leisler   91 

Leisler's  Tomb    95 

Corner  Broad  Street  and  Garden  Street  (Exchange  Place)   97 

E'ac-simile  Letter  of  Bradford   100 

Garden  Street  (Exchange  Place)  Church,  1693   103 

City  Hall,  1700    106 

Plan  of  New  York  in  1695   108 

The  Collect  Pond   112 

New  York  in  Burnet's  Day   Ill 

Mrs.  William  Burnet  .  . .  !   116 

Rip  Van  Dam   120 

William  Smith   121 

Page  from  Zenger's  Journal   124 

Andrew  Hamilton   128 

Slave  Market,  Foot  of  Wall  Street   130 

New  York  Almshouse,  1731   134 

Brooklyn  Ferry   135 

Dutch  Church  on  Nassau  Street,  1731   138 

Colonial  Cocked  Hat   141 

Cadwallader  Golden   143 

Admiral  Warren's  House  at  Greenwich   144 

Battery  in  1746    147 

View  of  New  York  in  1761   150 

Royal  Exchange,  1752    153 

North  Dutch  Church  on  Fulton  Street,  1769   155 

Wall  Street  Presbyterian  Church   156 

Columbia  (King's)  College,  1758   158 

The  Walton  House   160 

Walton  House — Interior   162 

Broad  Street  and  City  Hall   165 

Provincial  Seal   171 

Burns's  Coffee  House   175 

Liberty  Boys'  Placard   177 

Kennedy  and  Watts  Houses,  1  and  3  Broadway   179 

Samuel  Johnson   183 

Augustus  Jay   185 

Mayor  Whitehead  Hicks   189 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATION'S. 

PAGE 

Alexander  McDougall   191 

John  Street  Methodist  Church   193 

The  News  from  Lexington   198 

Exploit  of  Marinas  Willett   201 

View  of  Hell  Gate  in  177G   204 

Ruins  of  Trinity  Church   20S 

Hill's  Map  of  New  York,  Showing  Intrenchments   211 

Statue  of  Capt.  Nathan  Hale   216 

Civic  Reception  to  Washington  and  Clinton   220 

The  British  Evacuating  New  York.  17N:>>   225 

Map  of  New  York  in  1789   228 

Gouverneur  Morris   231 

Washington  Landing  at  New  York  in  1789   234 

Washington  Taking  the  Oath  as  President   230 

Inauguration  of  Washington — Scene  in  Wall  Street,  April  .">(>. 

1789    239 

Hamilton  Grange   241 

Richmond  Hill    244 

The  Hamilton-Burr  Duel   247 

The  Government  House   231 

Society  Library  iu  179.")   253 

Hamilton-Burr  Duelling  Ground   257 

Robert  Fulton   259 

The  Clermont  and  Its  Machinery   201 

Washington  Hall   263 

Hallett's  Point  Tower   265 

Murray  Street  in  1822   268 

Arrival  of  Lafayette  in  1824   270 

City  Hall  Illuminated  for  Erie  Canal  Celebration   274 

Broadway  at  Canal  Street,  1811   277 

Corner  Chapel  and  Provost  Streets  (West  Broadway  and  Frank- 
lin Street),  1826   .'   278 

Washington  Irving    281 

First  House  Lighted  by  Gas,  1825   284 

City  Hall  in  the  Park,  1812   287 

Interior  of  Park  Theater,  November  7.  1822   291 

John  .lav's  House  at  Bedford   295 

Broadway  at  St.  Paul's  in  1831   298 

The  Great  Fire  of  1835 — Burning  of  Merchants'  Exchange   300 

Coenties  Slip  in  the  Fire  of  1835   304 

Christopher  Colles   306 

Engine  in  Waterworks  of  1776   307 

Manhattan  Company's  W  aterworks   309 

The  Croton  Water  Celebration   311 

Masonic  Hall  on  Broadway   313 

Mayor  Walter  Bowne   317 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Cotoit's  Garden,  Broadway,  1830   319 

St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  1815   321 

Albert  Gallatin  :   323 

Broadway  in  1840    327 

First  Telegraph  Line  Constructed   330 

General  Worth   333 

Clipper  Ship  Dreadnaught   336 

The  "  America  "  Cup   339 

Panic  of  1857— Scene  in  Wall  Street   342 

French  Church  in  1834    346 

Astor  Place  Riot,  1849   349 

The  Fountain  in  City  Hall  Park  ,   351 

High-Constable  Jacob  Hays   356 

The  Battery  and  Castle  Garden  in  1850   358 

Jenny  Lind    361 

The  Great  Eastern   363 

William  Cullen  Bryant   365 

The  Astor  Library   367 

Fitz-Greene  Halleck   369 

Charles  F.  Hoffman   371 

James  K.  Paulding   372 

Gulian  C.  Verplanck   374 

Joseph  R.  Drake   376 

Laura  Keene   377 

Crystal  Palace  in  1853    379 

Interior  of  Crystal  Palace  in  1853   381 

Park  Theater   383 

Jenny  Lind  at  Castle  Garden,  1850   384 

Henry  Grinnell   387 

Grinnell  Expedition  in  the  Arctic  Regions   390 

Fort  Lafayette  During  the  War   ;s;)3 

Charles  O'Conor   396 

Gen.  Winfield  Scott  .   398 

William  H.  Seward   403 

The  Merrimac  and  Monitor,  1862   406 

Irving's  Residence,  "  Sunnyside  "   408 

Admiral  John  D.  Worden   412 

Fort  Lafayette  in  Times  of  Peace   417 

Lincoln  Statue  in  Union  Square   420 

William  M.  Evarts    424 

Section  of  Atlantic  Cable   427 

Arrival  of  the  Great  Eastern  at  Heart's  Content   428 

Broadway  Above  the  Postoffice   430 

Academy  of  Design   433 

Tweed  Cartoon  by  Thomas  Nast   437 

County  Court  House   439 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Tweed  Cartoon — The  Victory  Over  Corruption   441 

The  Postofflce   445 

Tweed  Cartoon—"  To  the  Victor  Belongs  the  Spoils  "   448 

Henry  Bergh   450 

Normal  College   452 

Water  Tower,  High  Bridge,  and  Washington  Bridge   454 

Elevated  Bailroad— Curve  at  110th  Street   457 

Elevated  Railroad  in  the  Bowery   459 

Harlem  River  Improvements — Looking  West  from  Kingsbridge 

Koad    462 

Harlem  Kiver  Improvements   405 

Union  Square  on  the  Evening  of  July  4,  1876   407 

Roscoe  Conkling   409 

The  Brooklyn  and  New  York  Bridge   471 

Park  Avenue — Tunnel  Beneath   474 

St.  Patrick's  Cathedral   477 

The  Obelisk  in  Central  Park   481 

George  W.  Curtis   484 

East  River  from  the  Bridge   487 

Hell  Gate  Explosion   490 

"  Liberty  Enlightening  the  World  "   492 

Wall  Street— Scene  of  Exercises  in  1889   495 

The  Washington  Arch   498 

The  Vanderbilt  Eesidences   502 

Battery  Park.  Washington  Building.  Produce  Exchange   .">04 

Postofflce  and  Park   500 

Interior  View  of  Trinity  Church   509 

Trinity  Church   511 

Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine   513 

Madison  Square  Garden   515 

Apartment  nouses  Opposite  Central  Park   518 

New  Fork  Harbor,  American  Line  Steamer  in  Foreground   521 

Columbia  Celebration  Medal   524 

Columbus  Statue — Eighth  Avenue  and  59th  Street   525 

The  Bowling  Green  To-day   527 

Fourteenth  Street  West  of  Union  Square   529 

Newspaper  Offices  Down  Town   530 

The  Battery— View  of  the  Bay   533 

Military  Drill  of  the  Public  School  Boys   530 

The  Netherland,  Savoy,  and  Plaza  Hotels   540 

The  Speedway  Along  the  Harlem  River   542 

Museum  of  Natural  History   545 

Metropolitan  Opera  House   548 

College1  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  18S7   550 


PREFACE. 


HILE  a  preface  is  never  very  eagerly  looked  for  or  carefully 
scanned  by  the  general  reader,  still,  from  a  perversity  of 
human  nature,  writers  will  have  something  to  say  in  ad- 
vance about  their  work.  We  may  begin  by  stating  that 
these  volumes  were  not  written  with  any  vain  expectation  of  adding 
to  the  information  of  persons  already  specialists  in  the  history  and  an- 
tiquities of  our  city.  We  have  simply  followed  the  course  of  events  as 
already  indicated  in  the  pages  of  many  industrious  historians,  who 
have  so  thoroughly  investigated  the  field  that  but  few  new  facts  could 
hope  to  be  discovered.  Yet  we  will  not  hesitate  to  claim  that  a  few 
such  bits  of  history  which  have  escaped  others  have  happily  drifted 
our  way.  and  been  given  a  place  in  these  pages.  But  we  have  mainly 
had  in  mind  throughout  the  busy  men  in  all  trades,  pursuits,  profes- 
sions, who  have  been  compelled  to  neglect  the  opportunities  for  be- 
coming perfectly  acquainted,  to  the  minutest  details,  with  the  inter- 
esting annals  of  our  city.  It  has  been  our  aim  to  make  it  possible  that 
these  should  obtain  from  our  book  what  may  be  called  a  good  "  work- 
ing "  acquaintance  with  facts  and  events  most  worth  knowing, 
grouped  in  a  way  to  hold  the  attention  and  to  impress  the  memory. 
We  have  thought  it  necessary  in  order  to  attain  this  object  to  confine 
ourselves  strictly  to  matters  germane  to  our  city's  history  and  life. 
We  have  not  traveled  to  European  courts  to  hold  converse  with  reign- 
ing monarchs,  nor  examined  the  details  of  bedrooms  in  princely  cas- 
tles, whereby  some  recent  writers  have  sought  to  elucidate  the  annals 
of  New  York.  We  have  not,  like  some,  exhausted  the  biography  of 
provincial  governors,  nor  dwelt  on  the  chronology  of  sister  colonies. 
On  the  contrary  we  have  endeavored  to  lay  all  possible  emphasis  upon 
such  things  as  bear  directly  and  vividly  upon  the  development  of  our 
city  from  the  tiny  hamlet  of  bark  huts  of  1614  to  the  magnificent  me- 
tropolis of  1898. 


CHAPTEK  I. 


DISCOVERY  AND  SETTLEMENT. 

CITY  beautiful  for  situation!"  Was  there  ever  a  city  iu  all 
the  world  to  which  this  familiar  biblical  phrase  is  more 
truly  applicable  than  to  our  City  of  New  York?  For  the 
beauty  of  its  situation  consists  not  only  in  the  charm  of 
the  scenery:  one  or  two  other  cities  may  share  or  outrival  our  own  in 
this  respect.  But  it  appears  also  in  the  adaptedness  of  her  situation 
to  all  the  purposes,  requirements,  necessities,  conveniences  of  a 
great  commercial  center.  Was  there  ever  such  another  combination 
of  advantages  to  invite  and  secure  the  growth  of  a  metropolis? 
The  broad  outer  and  inner  bays  opening  wide  their  arms  to 
welcome  commerce  and  afford  a  safe  harborage  from  the  bois- 
terous ocean.  The  wide  and  deep  river,  almost  like  an  arm  of 
the  sea,  penetrating  far  into  the  heart  of  the  interior;  matched 
by  a  parallel  waterway  scarcely  less  wide  and  deep,  and  communicat- 
ing with  the  sheltered  Sound;  the  two  affording  a  quadruple  water- 
front of  unequaled  capacity  for  the  accommodation  of  shipping. 
Were  there  ever  such  conveniences  put  in  readiness  for  municipal 
exigencies  as  the  smaller  islands  in  bay  and  river?  Liberty  Island  is 
just  the  place  for  the  colossus  that  graces  it;  it  could  not  have  a  moie 
advantageous  location.  Ellis  Island  is  an  ideal  spot  to  establish  the 
gate  through  which  is  to  pass  for  scrutiny  the  great  army  of  immigra- 
tion; lest  a  too  indiscriminate  influx  of  foreign  population  should 
harm  us  rather  than  benefit.  How  fitly  does  Governor's  Island  stand 
on  guard  over  against  the  city,  as  if  meant  by  a  presaging  mind  for 
erecting  fortifications,  and  for  putting  all  the  military  array  that  may 
be  necessary  near  such  a  center  of  population,  neatly  by  itself,  and  out 
of  the  way  of  business  and  traffic.  Observe,  too,  how  finely  have 
BlackwelFs  and  Ward's  and  Randall's  islands  served  for  the  sadder 
necessities  of  charities  and  correction.  Where  could  these  unfortu- 
nates have  been  so  safely  or  so  healthfully  housed,  as  they  are  now, 
walled  in  by  water  and  fresh  air  rather  than  by  brick  and  mortar? 
And,  again,  reverting  to  the  conveniences  for  trade  and  commerce, 
added  to  the  remarkable  double  water-front  of  the  portion  of  the  city 
on  Manhattan  Island,  there  is,  as  already  intimated,  the  quadrupling 


2 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  that  signal  advantage  by  the  wharf  and  duck-lined  shores  of  Brook- 
lyn and  Jersey  ( Jity,  so  that  actually  the  artificial  water  arrangements 
deliberately  constructed  by  the  ingenuity  of  man  in  the  city's  proto- 
type and  erewhile  namesake,  Amsterdam,  are  not  so  convenient  and 
appropriate  to  the  uses  of  commerce  as  those  which  nature  has  pro- 
vided for  New  York.  By  this  multiplying  of  facilities,  and  the  vej y 
symmetry  and  harmony  of  accommodation  for  all  the  needs  of  munic- 
ipal existence,  no  wonder  the  great  city  has  grown  to  be  what  it  is. 
Nature  could  not  have  more  clearly  expressed  its  design  to  produce 
the  results  here  so  gloriously  apparent,  if  it  had  written  on  sky  or 
land  the  mandate:  Build  me  a  city  here. 

And  this  chief  city  of  the  American  hemisphere,  now.  in  its  en- 
larged being,  only  second  in  size  of  the  world,  has  a  history  second  to 
none  in  romantic  interest.  The  romance  begins  with  the  story  of  its 
discovery.  Now  and  then  a  glimpse  had  been  caught  of  what  here 
lay  hidden  from  the  eye  of  civilized  man.  In  1524,  John  Verrazano, 
an  Italian,  sailing  in  the  service  of  France,  dropped  anchor  in  the 
Lower  Bay.  Seeing  what  seemed  a  river  issuing  from  between  two 
little  hills,  he  sent  a  boat  to  explore  it.  When  but  a  hurried  visit  had 
been  made  to  the  inner  bay,  its  islands  scarce  discerned,  a  threat- 
ening storm  forced  the  exploring  party  to  rejoin  the  ship,  and  their 
ship  weighed  anchor  and  stood  out  to  open  sea.  The  next  year,  L525, 
Stephen  Gomez,  a  Portuguese  sailing  for  Spain,  visited  our  waters. 
He,  too,  must  have  seen  the  tide  rushing  out  between  t  lie  Narrows, 
for  he  told  the  Spanish  mapmakers. to  place  a  river  upon  their  charts 
just  about  where  flows  the  Hudson,  and  to  call  it  San  Antonio,  be- 
cause he  saw  it  on  the  date  sacred,  to  that  saint.  But  it  is  doubtful 
whet  her  <  iomez  obtained  more  than  a  distant  view  of  the  Narrows,  as 
neither  the  maps  nor  the  descriptions  that  depended  upon  his  infor- 
mation furnish  t  he  least  hint  of  a  bay  or  of  any  ot  her  part  iculars  of  a 
scenery  so  remarkable  as  that  of  our  river.  It  was,  therefore,  none 
the  less  as  a  discoverer  that  early  in  the  next  century,  eighty  four 
years  after  Gomez,  Henry  Hudson,  an  Englishman  sailing  in  the 
service  of  Holland,  entered  our  Lower  Bay  and  sought  shelter  within 
the  point  of  Sandy  Hook.  And  when  he  supplemented  this  achieve- 
ment by  exploring  the  river  which  has  since  immortalized  his  name 
as  far  as  the  head  of  navigation,  Hudson's  title  to  discoverer  will 
certainly  admit  of  no  further  dispute. 

It  was  on  Wednesday,  September  2,  1609,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, as  the  male's  logbook  minutely  informs  us,  that  Hudson's  ship, 
the  Half  Moon,  dropped  her  anchor  inside  of  Sandy  Hook.  \Ye  can 
easily  picture  to  ourselves  what  parts  of  Greater  New  York  the  eyes 
of  captain  and  company  rested  on.  Twelve  miles  to  the  north  and 
northeast  of  them,  across  the  entire  breadth  of  the  bay.  a  silvery  line 
of  beach  at  Coney  Island  and  Rockaway  Beach  marked  the  limits  of 
the  blue-green  waters.    Beyond  this  low-lying  shore,  higher  banks 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


3 


might  have  been  seen  culminating  in  the  eastern  portal  of  the  Nar- 
rows. Opposite  rose  the  loftier  hills  of  Staten  Island.  As  the  Half 
Moon  entered  the  Narrows,  and  the  eyes  of  her  mariners  rested  upon 
the  waters  and  their  shores 
within,  it  is  more  difficult  for 
us  to  imagine  how  these  now 
so  busy  haunts  of  trade  and 
traffic,  built  upon  by  thousands 
of  dwelling-houses  or  ware- 
houses, by  long  lines  of  smok- 
ing factories,  and  the  huge  busi- 
ness palaces,  where  every  form 
of  mercantile  and  professional 
activity  goes  on — how  these 
must  have  looked  in  the  virgin 
solitude  and  stillness  of  the 
pristine  wilderness.  But  it  would  have  been,  on  the  other  hand,  sim- 
ply impossible  for  Hudson  and  his  companions  to  foresee  that  these 
wide-stretching  shores  of  bays  and  rivers  would  one  day  be  occupied 
by  one  vast  municipality. 

After  lying  at  anchor  in  the  Lower  Bay  for  ten  days,  Hudson  ven- 
tured to  steer  the  Half  Moon  up  between  the  Narrows,  on  Septem- 
ber 12.  The  mate's  logbook  records  a  journey  of  two  leagues,  or  six 
miles.  If  that  measurement  began  at  the  Narrows,  the  Half 
Moon  must  have  dropped  anchor  about  opposite  Castle  ^'ill- 
iam,  between  Governor's  and  Liberty  islands.  Drifting  with  the 
tide,  eleven  and  a  half  miles  were  made  up  river  on  September 
13,  and  this  would  have  carried  the  explorers  about  as  far  as 
Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek,  the  boundary  of  Manhattan  Island.  On 
the  11th  a  big  stretch  of  thirty-six  miles  took  them  far  beyo,  d 
Yonkers,  and  the  utmost  northern  limit  of  the  Greater  New  York. 
We  do  not  just  now  care  to  follow  Hudson  all  the  way  up  the 
river,  sailing  until  he  could  go  no  farther,  and  wTas  forced  to  con- 
clude he  was  not  upon  a  strait  like  Magellan's  at  the  south.  He  turned 
to  go  down  on  September  23.  On  October  2  the  Half  Moon  cas1 
her  anchor  opposite  Hoboken.  On  October  3  her  people  were  waiting 
in  the  Upper  Bay  for  a  storm  to  pass  over,  within  the  shelter  of  the 
heights  of  Long  and  Staten  islands;  and  finally,  on  October  1,  the 
Half  Moon  cleared  the  harbor;  the  first  ship  to  sail  from  New 
York  direct  for  Europe;  the  precursor  of  an  innumerable  fleet,  and 
of  craft  as  strangely  different  from  her  as  human  imagination  could 
then  well  conceive. 

But  it  becomes  time  now  to  inquire  who  sent  Henry  Hudson  and 
the  Half  Moon  to  these  shores?  New  York  cannot  afford  to  speak 
disparagingly  of  Arctic  explorations.  It  shall  appear  later  that  her 
sons  have  not  been  wanting  in  zeal  and  generosity  in  furthering  such 


THE  HALF  MOON  IN  1609. 


4 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


enterprises.  And  it  is  well  that  this  can  be  said  of  her,  for  the  discov- 
ery of  her  delectable  situation  was  the  result  of  an  intelligent  interest 
in  Arctic  exploration  on  the  part  of  a  few  citizens  of  Amsterdam,  Hol- 
land. Exactly  three  hundred  years  ago,  during  the  winter  of  159(1  to 
1597,  the  first  party  of  Europeans  that  ever  spent  a  winter  in  the  Arc- 
tic regions,  went  through  its  terrible  experiences  on  the  island  of 
Nova  Zembla.  They  were  the  ship's  company  of  a  Dutch  vessel  from 
Amsterdam,  under  the  lead  of  the  famous  W  illiam  Barends.  Return- 
ing to  tell  of  their  desperate  straits  and  narrow  escape  on  ( October  29, 
1597,  it  was  not  easy  to  induce  another  party  to  brave  such  misfor- 
tunes. Yet  at  last,  in  1G0S,  interest  in  Arctic  exploration  had  again 
been  revived  to  such  a  degree  by  the  agitation  of  a  few  enthusiasts, 
that  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  now  six  years  old,  and  reveling 
in  a  return  of  seventy-five  per  cent,  on  their  investments,  were  pre- 


vailed upon  to  set  aside  a  single  vessel  for  the  purpose  of  discovering 
a  short  and  easy  passage  to  their  East  Indian  possessions  by  way  of 
the  Arctic  Ocean,  north  of  Europe  and  Asia.  But  no  captain  of 
the  Dutch  merchant  or  naval  service  had  at  that  time  gained  any  ex- 
perience of  navigation  in  those  frozen  waters.  Henry  Hudson,  an 
Englishman,  on  the  other  hand,  had  obtained  some  fame  by  voyages 
to  the  White  Sea  and  further  north.  He  therefore  came  to  Amster- 
dam, either  soliciting  such  employment,  or  on  the  invitation  of  those 
who  were  interested  in  the  subject  of  the  northeast  passage.  Even 
then  the  astute  representative  of  Henry  I  V.  of  Prance  in  Holland 
had  nearly  captured  the  explorer  and  his  expedition,  had  not  the 
Dutch  merchants  found  it  out  and  promptly  closed  the  bargain  with 
Hudson  on  January  L'9.  L609.  A  few  months  of  preparation  followed, 
and  early  in  April,  Hudson  set  sail  from  Amsterdam  in  the  Half 
Moon,  a  crazy  little  craft  for  such  a  business,  as  we  would  think 
now,  of  less  than  a  hundred  tons  burden. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


5 


His  aim  was  to  sail  past  Nova  Zembla,  past  the  north  coast  of  Si- 
beria, then  through  Bering  Strait  into  the  Pacific,  and  so  southward 
to  the  Dutch  Indies,  the  islands  of  Java  and  Sumatra,  and  the  others. 
Whether  of  design  or  by  adverse  circumstances,  the  attempt  in  the 
direction  of  Nova  Zembla  and  the  northeast  was  abandoned  before 
the  Half  Moon  had  reached  the  North  Cape.  It  is  uncertain  whether 
Hudson  Avas  authorized  to  change  his  course  without  returning  t<» 
Amsterdam  for  orders.  At  any  rate,  lie  did  so.  telling  his  crew  that  he 
had  orders  to  try  the  northwest  passage  also,  but  at  the  same  time 
quietly  keeping  in  mind  a  hint  he  had  received  from  the  famous  Cap- 
tain John  Smith,  of  Virginia,  either  by  word  of  mouth  or  from  his 
maps.  This  was  to  the  effect  that  somewhere  about  latitude  40  de- 
grees north  there  was  a  strait  conducting  through  the  western  conti- 
nent to  the  Pacific,  just  like  Magellan's  Strait  at  the  southern  extrem- 
ity of  America.  It  was  for  this  reason  Hudson  imagined  he  was  ex- 
ploring a  strait  when  he  was  sailing  up  our  river,  and  certainly  its  fea- 
tures in  the  lower  portion,  even  as  far  as  Albany,  need  not  have  dis- 
couraged that  idea.  But  the  true  character  of  the  waterway  revealed 
itself  at  last,  and  the  disappointed  mariner  was  fain  to  return  home, 
having  neither  a  northeast  nor  a  northwest  passage  to  report,  nor  a 
convenient  strait  in  the  temperate  zone.  Arriving  at  Dartmouth,  the 
nationality  of  the  Half  Moon's  captain  was  made  a  pretext  for  the 
detention  of  the  ship  and  her  entire  company.  But  in  the  spring  of 
1610  the  Half  Moon  was  released  and  allowed  to  return  to  her 
owners,  Hudson  finding  it  expedient  to  remain  in  England,  and  send- 
ing only  his  reports  and  charts  of  the  new  countries. 

The  information  brought  by  the  mates  and  crew  of  the  Half 
Moon  was  of  no  use  to  the  Dutch  East  India  Company.  Their  char- 
ter, granted  as  early  as  1002,  carefully  defined  the  regions  in  which 
they  might  operate;  and  these  confined  them  to  the  East  Indies,  i  lie 
southern  and  eastern  coasts  of  Asia,  and  the  east  coast  of  Africa. 
The  west  coast  of  Africa  and  the  western  waters  of  the  Atlantic  were 
not  to  be  made  the  scenes  of  their  great  enterprises. 

But  the  information  conveyed  by  those  who  had  shared  in  the  event- 
ful cruise  of  the  company's  vessel  fell  upon  the  ears  of  a  very  wide- 
awake people.  The  Dutch  of  that  day  were  the  Yankees  of  Europe. 
They  had  won  for  themselves  a  free  republic,  whose  independence  was 
virtually  acknowledged  by  the  King  of  Spain  (who  had  owned  and 
oppressed  their  provinces)  when  he  was  forced  to  conclude  a  truce 
with  his  former  subjects  in  1609,  five  days  after  the  Half  Moon 
sailed  from  Amsterdam.  In  1579  they  had  formed  a  confederation  of 
seven  provinces  or  states,  calling  themselves  the  United  Netherlands, 
or  the  United  States  of  the  Netherlands.  In  1581  they  had  declared 
their  independence.  In  1609  they  had  become  so  powerful  and  rich, 
and  the  contest  had  so  impoverished  and  exhausted  Spain,  that  the 
latter  begged  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities  and  negotiated  for  that  on 


6 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


terms  of  equality  as  nations.  Yet  not  till  1648  was  the  war  for  inde- 
pendence finished,  completing  a  period  of  eighty  years.  Right  in  the 
midst  of  war  commerce  flourished  amazingly;  inventions  of  all  kinds 
astonished  the  world;  among  them  the  telescope  and  microscope,  and 
•  a  whole  host  of  agricultural  devices  for  securing  winter  food  supplies 
for  man  and  beast,  indeed,  what  an  Italian  said  of  the  Dutch  in  the 
17th  century  reads  almost  as  if  taken  from  some  page  descriptive  of 
the  Yankees  of  a  later  age:  "  They  have  a  special  and  happy  talent  for 
the  ready  invention  of  all  sorts  of  mediums,  ingenious  and  suitable  for 
facilitating,  shortening,  and  dispatching  everything  they  do." 

Among  such  a  people,  full  of  the  commercial  spirit,  of  restless  en- 
ergy, and  prompt  in  execution,  the  tale  of  discovery  in  America  made 
by  a  vessel  owned  by  natives  of  their  own  counti-y,  thus  giving  them 
title  to  its  discoveries  according  to  the  laws  of  that  day,  was  bound 
to  bear  instant  fruit.  Even  before  the  Half  Moon  had  returned  to 
Holland,  on  the  strength  of  the  rumors  preceding  her  release  by  t  he 
English,  a  small  company  of  merchants  had  already  been  formed  and 
were  prepared  to  dispatch  a  ship  to  the  regions  whence  she  had  come, 
the  Half  Moon  herself  necessarily  entered  again  upon  the  service 
of  the  East  India  Company,  and  is  recorded  upon  the  company's  ship- 
book  of  1615  as  lost  ("  not  heard  from  ")  at  the  same  time  that  a  com- 
panion ship  was  wrecked  upon  the  island  Mauritius  in  the  Indian 
Ocean.  But  a  part  of  her  crew  were  prevailed  upon  to  return  to  our 
waters,  while  Hudson's  Dutch  mate  was  made  captain  of  the  vessel 
now7  sent  out. 

For  several  years  in  succession  one  or  more  ships  were  annually  dis- 
patched to  the  countries  opened  to  Dutch  enterprise  by  Hudson's  dis- 
covery. An  expedition  went  forth  in  1611  which  got  stranded  some- 
where upon  the  coast  of  Norway.  But  in  1612  we  first  learn  of  two 
navigators  who  cut  quite  a  prominent  figure  in  these  early  visits  to 
the  vicinity  of  Manhattan  Island. 

These  men  were  Captains  Henry  Christiaensen  and  Adrian  Block. 
They  first  went  to  Hudson's  rivet  in  1(>12  in  a  vessel  of  their  own,  but 
not  commanded  by  themselves.  They  secured  a  cargo  of  peltries  and 
carried  to  Holland  two  sons  of  Indian  chiefs, one  of  whom,  a  few  years 
afterward,  murdered  Christiaensen  upon  an  island  of  the  Hudson.  In 
the  next  year.  1613,  each  of  the  two  friends  took  command  of  a  sepa- 
rate vessel — Christiaensen  of  the  Fortune,  and  Block  of  the  Tiger 
— and  again  sailed  in  company  to  Manhattan  Island.  This  expedition 
proved  an  event f til  one  in  many  particulars.  In  the  first  place  Chris- 
tiaensen determined  upon  a  departure  from  the  usual  plan.  Instead 
of  returning  to  Holland  the  same  year,  he  resolved  to  spend  the  winter 
on  Manhattan.  A  number  of  rude  huts  were  built  of  branches  and 
bark  upon  the  spot  afterward  occupied  by  the  Macomb  mansion, 
Washington's  residence  during  the  latter  portion  of  his  stay  in  New 
York  as  president.  This  interesting  site  is  identified  to-day  as  that  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


7 


39  Broadway,  doubly  memorable,  therefore,  in  its  connection  with 
Washington,  and  as  the  spot  where  stood  the  primitive  abodes  of  those 
pioneers  of  civilization  who  became  the  first  residents  of  our  metropo- 
lis. It  is  worthy  of  note  in  addition  that  now  the  offices  of  the  Nether- 
lands-American Steamship  Line  are  to  be  found  at  that  address.  A 
bronze  tablet  appropriately  calls  attention  to  the  historic  interest  of 
the  spot. 

But  while  Christiaensen  was  making  this  bit  of  history  for  posterity 
to  celebrate,  Block  was  furnishing  another.  His  ship,  the  Tiger, 
while  lying  at  anchor  in  the  Bay,  was  entirely  destroyed  by  fire.  It 
was  a  serious  calamity  in  such  a  place.  Buf  nothing  daunted  these 
indomitable  Yankee  Dutchmen.  In  spite  of  a  deficiency  of  proper 
tools,  and  without  any  seasoned  timber,  Block  and  his  men  went  to 
work  and  built  a  shallop  of  sixteen  tons  burden,  to  which  they  gave 
the  name  of  the  On  rust,  or  the  Kestless.  It  may  ha  ve  been  in 
the  spring  of  1614  that  this  small  vessel  was  completed.  Block  at 
once  put  it  to  use  exploring  waters  they  had  not  ventured  upon  before 
with  larger  vessels.  He  sailed  up  the  East  River,  braved  the  horrors 
of  Hell  Gate,  penetrated  beyond  the  headlands  of  Throgg's  Neck  and 
YYhitestone,  and  thus  found  himself,  to  his  surprise,  upon  the  broad 
bosom  of  the  Sound.  Its  existence  had  not  before  been  suspected,  as 
the  coast-line  of  Long  Island  had  been  merged  upon  the  maps  of  that 
date  with  that  of  the  mainland  of  New  England.  It  is  fortunate  that 
of  Block's  commendable  adventure,  which  included  the  discovery  of 
the  Connecticut  River,  there  remains  to  immortalize  him  at  least  the 
name  of  one  island. 

Meanwhile  a  perfect  ferment  of  interest  in  the  regions  opened  to 
trade  and  exploration  by  Hudson  had  been  kept  up  in  the  mother 
country.  Others  beside  Christiaensen  and  Block  were  sending  out 
vessels.  And  in  March,  1614,  the  States  General  or  Congress  of  the 
Dutch  Republic  raised  the  excitement  to  fever  heat  by  a  remarkable 
action.  They  published  a  placard  or  decree,  offering  a  charter  of  ex- 
clusive privileges  of  trade  to  any  person  or  number  of  persons  who 
should  discover  new  countries, — to  the  extent  of  four  voyages  to  the 
same;  and  on  condition  that  information  of  the  regions  discovered  or 
explored  be  given  to  the  States  General  fourteen  days  after  return 
therefrom.  In  July  a  number  of  merchants,  located  in  six  different 
cities  of  the  Republic,  sought  to  secure  this  charter  on  the  strength  of 
Hudson's  discovery,  which  had  not  been  followed  up  by  any  applica- 
tion of  this  sort,  and  since  whom  no  new  discoveries  had  been  made. 
It  is  possible  they  might  have  obtained  it,  but  while  the  matter  was 
pending  Block  arrived  in  Holland,  about  October  1,  1614,  and  on  Oc- 
tober 11  he  was  at  The  Hague  before  the  States  General,  with  a  map 
showing  decidedly  new  discoveries  in  addition  to  those  made  by  Hud- 
son. He  was  thus  entitled  to  the  charter  promised  by  the  States  Gen- 
eral, and  in  connection  with  several  other  persons,  merchants  and 


8 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


navigators,  including  his  friend  Christiaensen,  they  formed  the  New 
Netherlands  Company,  to  whom,  thus  named,  the  charter  was  issued 
under  the  date  October  11,  1614.  It  was  thus  that  the  country  of 
which  New  York  is  the  heart  and  center  first  received  the  name  New 
Netherland,  in  honor  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  Netherlands,  t<> 
whose  enterprise  it  owed  its  discovery  and  exploit  at  ion.  By  a  curious 
coincidence,  as  Brodhead  reminds  us,  in  the  same  month  and  year  the 


PART  OF  BLOC  K'S  "  FIOUKATIVK"  MAP,  1614. 


term  New  England  was  first  applied  by  Prince  Charles  of  Wales 
(afterward  <  'harles  I.)  to  t  he  adjoining  regions. 

We  naturally  look  for  an  increase  of  activity  upon  Manhattan 
Island  as  the  result  of  this  charter.  It  has  been  supposed,  and  is 
act  ually  so  stated  by  some  of  t  lie  earlier  historians  of  New  York  prov- 
ince, that  a  fort  was  built  here  in  1615;  there  is  mention  in  some  origi- 
nal documents  of  one  or  more  little  forts  built  on  our  island  even  be- 
fore Kill.  Hut  t  he  evidence  in  support  of  t  hese  statements  is  not  very 
convincing.    There  is,  however,  no  doubt  that  forts  were  built  near 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


9 


the  site  of  Albany, — first  the  one  called  Fort  Nassau,  on  an  island  in 
the  river,  and  later  one  called  Fort  Orange  on  the  main  land.  The 
Delaware,  or  South  River,  was  also  explored  by  the  Dutch  traders, 
and  a  fort  built  there  to  protect  their  interests.  But  no  good  ground 
exists  for  believing  that  a  fort  was  built  on  Manhattan  Island  till  sev- 
eral years  later.  Still,  it  may  well  be  that  Christiaensen  surrounded 
his  little  cabins  with  a  stockade,  and  this  may  have  given  rise  to  the 
story  of  the  fort  of  1615. 

As  we  approach  the  period  when  Manhattan  Island  with  all  New 
Netherland  became  the  property  of  the  great  Dutch  trading  company 
known  as  the  West  India  Company,  an  account  of  the  origin  of  that 
formidable  institution  properly  claims  a  goodly  portion  of  our  atten- 
tion in  a  history  of  our  city.  It  has  been  noted  that  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company,  to  whom  we  owe  the  voyage  of  Hudson  in  the  "  Half 
Moon,"  was  established  and  chartered  in  1602.  Almost  at  the  same 
time  began  the  agitation  of  the  question  of  creating  a  West  India 
Company.  In  1601  one  William  Usselinx  was  requested  to  draw  up  a 
subscription  paper,  setting  forth  the  purposes  and  advantages  of  such 
a  company, to  be  circulated  among  the  merchants  of  the  Dutch  Repub- 
lic, in  the  hope  of  inducing  them  to  make  investments  for  that  pur- 
pose. This  Usselinx  was  a  native  of  Antwerp,  who,  with  thousands  of 
other  inhabitants  of  the  southern  or  Belgian  or  Walloon  Provinces  of 
the  Netherlands,  had  been  compelled  to  seek  refuge  from  religious 
persecution  and  civil  oppression  in  the  republic  of  the  Seven  Northern 
Provinces,  where  the  power  of  Spain  and  Rome  was  successfully  de- 
fied. From  his  first  entrance  into  his  adopted  country  he  had  advo- 
cated the  establishment  of  a  strong  financial  corporation,  similar  to 
that  exploiting  the  East  Indies,  for  the  fitting  out  of  armed  vessels 
to  attack  the  fleets  of  Spain  and  make  conquest  of  her  possessions  in 
the  American  hemisphere.  The  paper  he  prepared  met  with  the  p- 
proval  of  those  who  had  commissioned  him,  and  the  first  step  toward 
obtaining  government  recognition  of  the  scheme  was  taken  by  laying 
it  before  the  Board  of  Burgomasters  of  Amsterdam.  From  these  it 
was  sent  up  to  the  Legislature  or  "  States  "  of  Holland  Province, 
whence  finally  it  was  to  be  referred  to  the  States  General  of  the  Re- 
public. But  even  then,  many  years  before  the  Twelve  Years'  Truce, 
which  went  into  effect  from  1609  to  1621,  the  question  of  a  truce  was 
already  under  debate,  and  the  creation  of  the  West  India  Company 
with  such  a  plan  of  operation  as  was  proposed  for  it,  was  altogether 
too  distinctly  a  menace  to  peace  to  make  it  a  safe  or  politic  meas- 
ure. So,  naturally  enough,  the  scheme  went  no  further  than  discus- 
sion, and  languished  for  a  number  of  years. 

There  must  have  been  a  revival  of  it,  however,  when  the  news  came 
of  Hudson's  exploit.  Not  less  were  the  subsequent  voyages  and  the 
rich  returns  of  peltry  inducements  to  awaken  serious  attention  to  the 
advisability  of  a  AVest  India  Company.   We  have  seen  that  a  charter 


10 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


was  given  to  a  New  Netherland  Company,  bur  this  does  not  seem  to 
have  quite  discouraged  private  undertakings.  At  last  the  condition 
began  to  prevail  which  had  compelled  the  establishment  of  the  East 
India  Company.  A  multiplication  of  private  rivalries  and  of  more 
than  one  small  company  materially  reduced  the  profits  of  each  expe- 
dition, and  would  soon  result  in  the  abandonment  of  all  voyages  to 
these  regions.  To  fit  out  ships  nol  only  for  peaceful  trade,  but  also  to 
be  prepared  for  the  necessities  of  war,  was  something  that  no  mer- 
chant or  company  of  limited  means  could  keep  up  for  a  long  time  and 
yet  realize  desirable  profits.  It  needed  combined  effort,  a  "trust" 
or  monopoly  absorbing  all  competition  into  one  mighty  association, 
which  should,  by  its  vast  capital,  be  enabled  to  fit  out  its  vessels  prop- 
erly, and  then  be  in  a  condition  to  control  the  market  for  its  goods, 
so  as  to  get  encouraging  returns  for  their  outlay.  This  was  the  mer- 
cantile principle  upon  which  men  proceeded  in  the  formation  of  the 
great  trading  companies  of  England  and  Holland  in  the  17th  century. 
The  East  India  and  West  India  companies  were  simply  gigantic 
trusts. 

While  events  were  thus  moving  steadily  in  favor  of  the  abandoned 
scheme  of  Csselinx,  as  the  result  of  Hudson's  discovery  and  of  the 
ruinous  rivalries  of  small  traders,  they  were  doing  quite  as  much  for 
his  measure  in  tin1  political  sphere.  The  end  of  the  truce  was  ap- 
proaching.and  already  was  the  Thirty  Years*  War  begun  in  Germany, 
when  the  New  Netherland  Company's  charter  had  run  out  its  allotted 
three  years.  A  petition  for  its  renewal  was  refused,  for  now  the 
statesmen  of  Holland  were  ripe  for  the  larger  project.  In  September, 
1618,  the  question  of  a  charter  for  a  West  India  Company  w  as  up  be- 
fore the  Provincial  States  or  Legislature  of  Holland,  and  in  Novem- 
ber it  had  come  before  the  States  General.  Even  yel  it  was  expedi- 
ent to  proceed  cautiously,  for  the  truce  was  still  in  effect.  But  when 
it  was  over  and  the  Eighty  Years'  War  for  Dutch  independence  was 
resumed  in  1621,  the  country  was  ready  with  a  most  formidable  in- 
strument of  warfare,  in  addition  to  that  which  they  had  possessed 
before  the  truce;  for  on  -Tune  3,  1(521,  the  charter  of  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company  w,as  finally  signed.  Then  this  association,  already  by 
anticipation  fully  organized  in  all  its  branches,  entered  at  once  upon 
operations  against  the  enemy  in  America,  his  most  vital  quarter, 
where  exhaustless  mines  of  the  precious  metals  constantly  supplied 
him  with  the  means  of  war. 

It  will  not  be  amiss  to  give  the  details  of  an  organization  which  for 
so  many  years  owned  the  territory  now  covered  by  Greater  New 
York,  and  upon  whose  will  or  policy  depended,  for  weal  or  woe,  the 
management  of  the  affairs  of  the  people  who  were  its  first  inhabi- 
tants. Its  capital  was  to  be  a  sum  of  not  less  than  seven  millions  of 
florins  ($2,800,000).  It  could  nol  begin  operations  till  that  sum  had 
been  subscribed.    When  the  books  were  finally  closed  they  recorded 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


11 


a  capital  of  precisely  7,108,101.10  florins  ($2,843,204.41),  a  great  sum 
for  those  days.  The  merchants  or  shareholders  constituting  the  com- 
pany were  divided  into  five  "  chambers,"  determined  by  t  heir  resi- 
dence in  various  parts  of  the  Republic.  These  were  the  Chamber  of 
Amsterdam;  of  Zeeland;  of  the  Meuse,  embracing-  persons  residing  in 
the  cities  of  Dort,  Rotterdam,  and  Delft;  of  the  North  Quarter,  em- 
bracing the  cities  of  North  Holland  outside  of  Amsterdam,  and  of 
Friesland.  The  Chamber  of  Amsterdam,  containing  tin-  heaviest  sub- 
scribers, was  entitled  to 
twenty  directors;  Zeeland 
to  twelve;  each  of  the 
others  to  fourteen.  A  per- 
son, to  be  entitled  to  elec- 
tion as  director,  must,  in 
the  Amsterdam  chamber, 
hold  six  thousand  florins 
($2,400)  worth  of  shares. 
In  the  other  chambers  the 
amount  making  one  eligi- 
ble as  director  was  placed 
at  four  thousand  florins  west  india  company's  house  in  Amsterdam. 
($1,000).     Each  of  these 

five  bodies  met  independently  in  the  various  sections  where  they  were 
located,  but  the  management  of  the  whole  company  was  intrusted  to 
a  general  executive  board  of  nineteen  members,  eight  from  the  Cham- 
ber of  Amsterdam,  four  from  that  of  Zeeland,  and  two  each  from  the 
remaining  ones,  the  nineteenth  being  the  appointee,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  member  of  the  States  General  of  the  Republic,  who  must  report 
its  proceedings  to  that  body.  The  official  title  of  the  executive  board 
came  to  be  that  of  the  "  Assembly  of  the  XIX." 

In  order  to  understand  the  history  of  our  city  for  the  first  half  cen- 
tury of  its  existence  it  is  necessary  to  obtain  a  clear  idea  of  the  pow- 
ers and  privileges  granted  to  this  formidable  company.  For  a  period 
of  twenty-four  years  after  July  1,  1021,  it  was  permitted,  "  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  all  other  inhabitants  or  associations  of  merchants,  within 
the  bounds  of  the  United  Provinces,"  to  send  ships  for  trade  to  the 
countries  of  America  and  Africa  bordering  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
and  those  also  of  America  on  the  side  of  the  Pacific.  Within  the  re- 
gions thus  carefully  defined  the  company  was  granted  the  privilege 
(which  also  the  East  India  Company  possessed  within  its  sphere)  of 
effecting  "  treaties  and  alliances  with  princes  and  potentates."  Here, 
too,  forts  might  be  erected  in  defense  of  trade  or  for  carrying  on  war; 
troops  might  be  levied  and  armed,  and  war  vessels  equipped  and 
manned.  Governments  might  be  established  in  conquered  or  pur- 
chased territories,  but  "  the  Governor-General  must  be  approved  and 
commissioned  by  the  States  General,  and  swear  fealty  to  them  as  well 


12 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


as  to  the  Assembly  of  the  XIX."  The  company  was  also  "  conceded 
the  privilege  of  exporting  home  manufactures  and  of  importing  the 
products  of  the  countries  along  the  Atlantic,  free  of  all  duties  for 
the  space  of  eight  years."  Such,  then,  was  the  body  to  whom  now 
reverted  by  chartered  rights  the  possessions  in  the  new  world  which 
had  fallen  to  the  citizens  of  the  Dutch  Republic  by  the  dis<  fcvery  and 
exploration  of  Hudson,  and  by  the  trading  voyages  of  Christiaensen, 
Block,  and  other  enterprising  men.  New  Netherland  was  henceforth 
to  be  governed  by  an  association  of  merchants  to  whom  belonged 
many  sovereign  powers;  a  sort  of  i/mperium  in  imperio.  It  was  rather 
a  republic  within  a  republic,  the  one  strictly  commercial  in  its  aims, 
yet  endowed  with  important  political  and  civil  functions;  the  other 
strictly  the  supreme  civil  power,  but  knowing  that  its  very  life  de- 
pended upon  the  commercial  activity  of  its  people,  and  therefore  ever 
ready  to  stimulate  such  activity  by  the  gram  of  the  most  extraordi- 
nary privileges  and  prerogatives. 

Simultaneously  with  the  creation  of  the  West  India  Company  war 
between  the  United  Provinces  and  Spain  was  resumed,  and  war  was 
at  first  the  company's  principal  business,  h  sent  out  fleet  after  fleet, 
splendidly  equipped,  and  commanded  by  famous  admirals,  to  the 
coasts  of  Brazil,  and  actually  wrested  that  colony  from  the  Portu- 
guese, whose  country  had  been  conquered  by  Spain  in  1.~>S4.  and  w  hose 
colonies  were  thus  a  fair  prey  for  the  Dutch  in  both  the  East  and 
West.  In  1636  the  company  had  gained  so  many  provinces  of  Brazil 
that  they  induced  John  .Maurice,  Count  of  Nassau,  nearly  allied  to  the 
House  of  Orange,  to  accept  the  position  of  Governor-General,  w  hich 
he  held  for  about  eight  years.  In  the  West  Indies,  too,  conquests 
were  made,  and  many  islands  there  to  this  day  are  among  the  colonial 
possessions  of  Holland.  How  severe  were  the  blows  dealt  to  Spain 
by  the  warlike  company,  and  w  hat  were  some  of  its  sources  of  large 
and  quick  returns  on  the  investments  necessary  to  equip  its  arma- 
ments, may  be  understood  from  the  famous  capture  of  the  Spanish 
"  Silver  Fleet  "  {in  1628)  by  the  world-renowned  Dutch  admiral,  Piet 
Heyn.  The  booty  secured  for  the  company  by  their  doughty  officer 
"  was  worth  no  less  than  eleven  and  a  half  millions  of  florins  (f4,600,- 
000)."  The  prizes  brought  home  to  the  company's  wharves  by  other 
and  smaller  fleets  or  privateers,  commissioned  and  fitted  out  by  them 
in  the  same  year,  amounted  to  more  than  four  millions  of  florins  ($1,- 
600,000).  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  company  felt  justified  in  declaring 
a  dividend  of  fifty  per  cent,  in  L629,  and  one  of  twenty-five  per  cent, 
in  L630. 

Exploits  like  this,  however,  that  fascinated  the  popular  mind,  and 
realized  the  wildest  dreams  of  profit,  were  not  the  kind  to  advance 
the  interests  of  the  section  of  country  in  which  we  are  mainly  inter- 
ested. It  was  tame  work  colonizing  and  developing  the  resources  of 
Manhattan  Island  ami  vicinity,  compared  with  conquering  Brazil  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


13 


capturing-  silver  fleets.  There  were  no  immediate  millions  in  prosy 
colonization.  And  so  but  a  sorry  corner  was  given  to  this  pari  of  the 
company's  obligations  in  the  charter.  Even  the  article  that  referred 
to  it  was  very  general  in  its  phraseology,  and  had  no  special  applica- 
tion to  New  Netherland  alone.  It  read:  "  Further  (they)  may  pro- 
mote the  populating  of  fertile  and  uninhabited  regions, and  do  all  that 
the  advantage  of  these  provinces,  the  profit  and  increase  of  commerce 
shall  require."  Brief  as  is  this  language,  there  was  enough  of  it  to 
express  the  vicious  principle  underlying  colonization  as  conducted  in 
those  days.  It  was  the  advantage  of  these  provinces  that  must  be  held 
mainly  in  view — that  is,  the  home  country  must  receive  the  main  ben- 
efit from  the  settlements  wherever  made,  ahd  commerce  must  be 
made  profitable.  The  welfare,  present  or  prospective,  of  colonies  or 
colonists,  was  quite  a  subsidiary  consideration.  This  accounts  for 
much  of  the  subsequent  injustice,  oppression,  and  neglect  which 
made  life  in  New  Netherland  anything  but  agreeable,  and  finally 
bade  the  people  hail  the  conquest  by  England  as  a  happy  relief. 

Slight  as  was  the  requirement  to  colonize,  and  smaller  the  taste  for 
it  among  so  many  more  alluring  occupations,  yet  it  had  to  be  done; 
and  when  complaints  were  made  about  the  neglect  of  it,  the  company 
stirred  itself  to  fulfill  its  stipulations  in  this  respect.  And  thus  we 
are  brought  to  the  earlier  attempts  to  begin  colonial  life  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  and  within 
the  territory  of  the  Greater  New 
York. 

The  difficulty  was  to  obtain  col- 
onists. There  was  no  reason  why 
Hollanders  should  leave  their 
country  permanently,  and  culti- 
vate wild  tracts  on  distant,  sav- 
age shores.  Nobody  was  denying 
them  the  right  to  worship  God  as 
they  chose;  no  royal  hand  was 
pressing  the  last  cent  out  of  them 
for  senseless  taxes.  These  repub- 
licans were  their  own  masters, 
and  while  they  taxed  themselves 
heavily  to  maintain  a  long-con- 
tinued war,  it  was  a  war  for  inde- 
pendence already  practically  se- 
cured, and  they  were  accumulat- 
ing wealth  so  fast  that  they  did 
not  feel  the  drain.  But  just  be- 
cause of  the  civil  and  religious  liberty  enjoyed  within  the  borders  of 
the  Dutch  Republic,  it  became  a  place  of  refuge  for  many  people  of 
other  nations  driven  from  their  homes  by  religious  persecution  or 


A  DUTCH  WINDMILL. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


political  oppression.  Thus  the  country  swarmed  with  Walloons  from 
the  Walloon  (the  Gallic  or  French-speaking)  provinces  of  Belgium. 
Here  the  hand  of  Spain  and  of  Koine  was  still  heavy  upon  the  people 
and  Protestants  were  compelled  to  seek  safety  among  their  brother 
Netherlander  of  the  north,  whoso  seven  provinces  held  together  and 
continued  the  battle  against  Spanish  dominion  and  Koinist  persecu- 
tion, when  the  league  of  all  the  seventeen  provinces  fell  to  pieces.  We 
shall  soon  have  to  refer  to  these  Walloons  again,  but  we  must  first  ob- 
serve another  class  of  refugees  in  Holland  who  came  strangely  and  in- 
terestingly to  the  foreground  in  this  early  history  of  the  settlement  of 
New  York. 

In  1620  the  New  Netherland  Company  was  not  yet  extinct.  The 
West  India  Company  was  still  within  a  year  of  its  formal  creation, 
and  thus  this  and  other  associations  trading  with  America  still  had  a 
corporate  existence.  So  we  find  among  the  archives  of  the  larger  and 
later  corporation  a  document,  dated  February  12,  1620,  which  is  a 
petition  addressed  by  the  directors  of  the  New  Netherland  Company 
to  Maurice,  Prince  of  Orange,  Stadtholder  or  Chief  Executive  of  the 
Republic.  In  this  they  say:  "  It  happens  that  there  is  residing  at 
Leyden  a  certain  English  preacher,  versed  in  the  Dutch  language, 
who  is  well  inclined  to  proceed  thither  [i.e.,  to  New  Netherland]  to 
live,  assuring  the  petitioners  that  he  has  the  means  of  inducing  over 
four  hundred  families  to  accompany  him  thither,  both  out  of  this 
country  and  England,  provided  they  would  be  guarded  and  preserved 
from  all  violence  on  the  part  of  other  potentates,  by  the  authority  and 
under  the  protection  of  your  Princely  Excellency  and  the  High  and 
Mighty  Lords  States  General,  in  the  propagation  of  the  true,  pure, 
Christian  religion,  in  the  instruction  of  the  Indians  in  that  country 
in  true  doctrine,  and  in  converting  them  to  the  Christian  faith,  and 
thus  through  the  mercy  of  the  Lord,  to  the  greater  glory  of  this  coun- 
try's government,  to  plant  there  a  new  commonwealth,  all  under  the 
order  and  command  of  your  Princely  Excellency  and  the  High  and 
.Mighty  Lords  States  General."  That  the  directors  were  in  earnest 
about  this  appeal,  and  very  mucb  wished  to  secure  these  desirable 
colonists,  is  shown  by  the  fact  recorded  by  the  tatter's  annalists  that 
they  made  "  large  otters,"  including  free  transportation  in  the  com- 
pany's ships,  and  cattle  enough  to  supply  each  family.  All  they 
wanted  of  the  Dutch  government  was  "  two  ships  of  war,"  to  convoy 
an  expedition  necessarily  so  costly,  in  order  to  protect  it  against  the 
risks  of  war  or  piracy.  Put  the  Slates  General,  on  consulting  with 
their  Hoards  of  Admiralty,  or  Navy  Department,  found  they  could 
not  spare  the  two  ships  of  war  on  an  uncertain  (|tiest,  with  war  al- 
ready started  on  their  borders,  and  soon  to  be  resinned  by  themselves 
at  t  he  now  near  expiration  of  the  truce.  So  the  scheme  of  the  Nether- 
land Company  was  abandoned,  and  tin1  Pilgrims  did  not  settle  on 
Manhattan  Island.  That  was  reserved  for  a  far  future  day.  when  their 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


15 


descendants  began  to  see  the  brilliant  openings  to  fortune  afforded  to 
their  keen  wits  and  shrewd  practices  in  the  growing  metropolis.  Yet 
in  some  minds  must  have  lingered  the  idea  that  the  Pilgrims  did  not 
abandon  the  hope  of  settling  on  the  Hudson;  for  one  or  two  writers 
have  lately  worked  themselves  into  a  fury  against  Captain  Jones  of 
the  Mayflower,  stating  that  "Dutch  employers"  (of  whom  he  had 
none)  basely  bribed  him,  which  was  the  reason  that  he  refused  to 
take  the  vessel  to  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  but  was  determined  to 
land  somewhere  near  Cape  Cod.  From  the  account  given  a  few  sen- 
tences back  it  would  seem  that  these  Dutch  merchants  would  have 
been  more  likely  to  bribe  Captain  Jones  to  take  ///'  Pilgrims  to  Manhat- 
tan Island  than  to  keep  them  away  from  there.  * 

So  much,  then,  for  this  class  of  refugees,  enjoying  the  protection  of 
Holland.  It  is  now  necessary  to  turn  to  another.  In  April,  1622,  a 
petition  came  before  the  States  General  again,  stating  that  some  sixty 
families  of  Walloons,  residing  in  Amsterdam,  were  desirous  of  going 
to  America  and  settling  in  the  countries  belonging  to  Holland  by  vir- 
tue of  discovery.  As  nothing  was  said  about  furnishing  ships  of  war, 
which  could  not  be  spared  any  better  now  than  before,  no  hindrance 
to   the   proposed  emigration 


was  furnished  by  the  Dutch 
government.  Preparations  for 
the  expedition,  therefore,  pro- 
ceeded, and  in  March,  1623, 
everything  was  in  readiness. 
A  large  ship  for  those  days,  ap 
propriately  christened  the 
"  New  Netherland,"  of  two 
hundred  and  sixty  tons  bur- 
den, and  therefore  more  than 
three  times  the  size  of  the  Half 
Moon,  was  provided  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  thirty  of  the 
families,  who  were  to  precede 
the  rest.  An  armed  yacht,  the 
Mackarel,  accompanied  the 
larger  ship.  It  wras  command- 
ed by  Captain  Cornelius  Jacob- 
sen  May  (whose  name  is  still 
attached  to  Cape  May),  who 
was  to  be  also  the  governor  of 
the  colonv  when  on  land,  and 


SHIP  NEW  XKTHKKLAXD. 


to  make  his  headquarters  on  the  Delaware  after  he  had  deposited  por- 
tions of  his  company  at  various  points  on  the  Hudson  River. 

We  must  confine  ourselves  obviously  to  an  account  of  this  earliest 
serious  attempt  at  colonization  in  New  Netherland.  only  so  far  as  it 


16 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


has  relations  to  the  territory  embraced  in  Greater  New  York.  A  con- 
temporary Dutch  historian  is  the  sole  authority  for  a  rather  striking 
incident  in  the  waters  of  our  inner  bay.  As  the  New  Netherland  and 
her  armed  tender  entered  the  Narrows  they  were  surprised  to  behold 
anchored  in  the  bay  a  French  vessel,  evident  ly  upon  an  errand  similar 
to  their  own.  The  little  Mackarel  bore  down  upon  the  stranger,  and 
quite  unmistakably  impressed  upon  the  Frenchmen  the  expediency  of 
following  her  out  to  the  ocean,  and  sailing  away  from  these  parts  alto- 
gether, without  any  purpose  of  returning.  The  New  Netherland  then 
prepared  to  ascend  the  Hudson,  but  first  deposited  several  families 
upon  some  of  the  neighboring  shores.  Just  where  they  were  landed 
we  can  only  conjecture  by  putting  together  a  number  of  state- 
ments as  to  the  movement  of  certain  families.  From  the  formal  dep- 
osition of  one  Catelina  Trico,  before  Governor  Dongau  as  late  as  1686, 
based  upon  her  personal  recollection  as  a  passenger  in  this  ship,  we 
learn  that  eight  men  were  placed  on  Manhattan  Island.  It  does  not 
seem  a  very  large  number  to  be  left  alone  among  the  Indians.  It  is 
possible,  therefore,  that  there  already  was  a  settlement  here  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  many  trading  voyages.  Yet  some  of  the  Walloon  families 
must  have  been  set  down  on  Staten  Island  too.  For  we  are  all  famil- 
iar with  the  story  of  Sarah,  the  first  girl  of  European  parents  born  in 
New  Netherland,  and  the  first  child  thus  born  in  Greater  New  York. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Simon  de  Bapallo  (or  Rapalje,  as  the  Dutch 
spell  it),  and  was  born  on  June  6,  1025,  at  the  Wallabout — i.e.,  the 
W'aalen  Poght,  or  Walloon  Day,  now  a  part  of  Brooklyn.  Now  that 
name  is  significant;  it  must  have  been  derived  from  a  set  i  le- 
nient of  Walloons,  also  on  this  shore  of  Long  Island.  But  then, 
again,  we  are  informed  that  before  Simon  Rapalje  fixed  his  abode 
at  Wallabout  he  had  been  a  settler  on  Staten  Island;  so  there,  too 
some  of  the  Walloons  from  the  "  New  Netherland  "  must  have  been 
dropped. 

To  the  pages  of  Wassenaer,  the  only  contemporary  Dutch  historian 
w  ho  devotes  much  attention  to  events  in  America  at  this  time,  we  are 
again  indebted  for  a  most  valuable  piece  of  information  as  to  an  event 
occurring  in  1624.  Colonization  of  New  Netherland  was  now  a  fixed 
purpose,  and  the  settlement  upon  .Manhattan  Island  must  have  begUD 
to  attract  the  interest  of  the  directors  of  the  West  India  Company. 
One  of  them,  Peter  Evert  sen  Ilulst,  proposed  to  send  thither  a  body 
of  colonists,  not  of  the  human  species,  but  of  exceeding  great  value 
for  purposes  of  permanent  settlement,  nevertheless.  He  provided  at 
his  own  expense  three  ships,  and  the  government  furnished  an  armed 
yacht  to  accompany  them.  Two  of  the  ships  were  fitted  up  to  receive 
over  one  hundred  head  of  cattle.  "  A  special  deck  was  constructed 
for  their  stalls,  which  were  kept  thickly  sanded,*'  and  every  other 
device  was  ingeniously  applied  to  insure  that  amazing  cleanliness 
which  is  the  marvel  of  Dutch  stables  to-day.    Great  tanks  of  water 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


17 


were  placed  beneath  this  deck  on  each  ship.  On  the  third  ship  was 
stowed  the  needed  supply  of  fodder,  while  it  also  carried  six  families 
numbering  forty-five  persons,  who  went  over  as  colonists.  The  cat  t  le, 
consisting  of  beeves,  hogs,  and  sheep,  were  so  well  cared  for  that 
only  two  died  on  the  passage.  On  arrival  before  Manhattan  they  were 
landed  on  Governor's  Island  to  prevent  their  being  lost  in  the  inter- 
minable woods.  As  they  could  not  be  adequately  or  conveniently 
supplied  with  water  here,  it  was  necpssary  to  transfer  them  to  Man- 
hattan Island,  where  twenty  died  from  the  effects  of  grazing  on  poi- 
sonous weeds.  It  surely  was  an  achievement  for  which  Director  Hulst 
deserved  great  credit  and  gratitude,  for  the  possession  of  these  crea- 
tures must  have  been  of  immense  comfort  to  the  colonists.  It  is  to  be 
noted  with  some  satisfaction  that  in  this  particular  the  Dutch  beat 
the  Yankees  of  New  England,  since  not  till  1027  were  any  cattle 


might  have  been  greatly  reduced,  if  not  pre- 
vented altogether,  had  the  Pilgrims  been  possessed  of  cattle. 

Important  and  inviting  as  must  have  appeared  the  situation  of 
Manhattan  Island,  the  two  governors  that  preceded  the  final  and  per- 
manent establishment  of  colonial  government  were  directed  to  make 


18 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  Delaware  their  headquarters.  Captain  May  was  succeeded  after 
only  one  year  of  service  by  one  William  Verhulst,  who  also  ruled  but 
for  one  year.  An  island  in  the  Delaware  called  Verhulsten  island, 
seems  to  be  a  memento  of  his  presence  in  New  Netherland,  and  argues 
that  he  too  was  ordered  to  make  1  h is  part  of  the  province  the  sear  of 
his  authority.  The  time  seemed  now  to  have  come  for  establishing 
a  more  elaborate  system  of  government  for  the  colony,  which  evi- 
dently had  been  shoAving  symptoms  of  a  possibly  satisfactory  return 
on  their  investments  to  the  directors  of  the  West  India  Company. 
And  when  this  determination  was  arrived  at,  there  could  be  no  ques- 
tion where  the  seat  of  the  new  government  should  be  placed,  what 
spot  most  conspicuously  invited  the  planting  of  a  commercial  center. 

The  colonial  government  determined  upon  for  New  Netherland  was 
to  consist  first  of  a  chief  executive,  the  Director-General  (DireJcteur 
Gemraal).  He  was  to  be  advised  by  a  council  of  five  members,  who 
were  also  to  exercise  judiciary  functions,  to  sit  as  a  court  for  the  trial 
of  offenses.  Their  power  of  punishment,  however,  did  not  go  beyond 
the  imposition  of  a  fine,  and  all  capital  cases  must  be  transferred  to 
the  courts  of  the  mother  country.  There  was  also  to  be  a  secretary  of 
the  council,  who  appears  to  have  been  the  person  in  most  need  of  an 
education  for  the  proper  performance  of  his  functions,  supplementing 
especially  the  lack  of  legal  knowledge  apt  to  characterize  the  council 
members.  Finally,  there  was  to  be  a  Schoiti,  or  Schoittfiscaal — that  is, 
a  treasurer.  The  last-named  office  reminds  us  that  the  colonial  gov- 
ernment intended  for  the  whole  province  was  really  somewhat  mod- 
eled after  the  Dutch  municipal  system.  Later  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  enter  more  fully  into  the  details  of  t  hose  corporations.  Here  it  w  ill 
suffice  to  say  that  a  Dutch  city  was  in  earliest  times  governed  Ijy  a 
chief  executive,  called  a  8chout,  whose  office  most  resembles  that  of 
what  we  call  a  sheriff.  The  Burgomasters  and  Schepens  constituted 
the  legislative  and  judiciary  branches;  and  the  Schepens  (from  Sea- 
bini)  were  always  of  an  uneven  number,  five,  seven,  nine,  or  more,  ac- 
cording to  the  size  of  the  town.  Thus,  in  the  colonial  government 
now  provided  for  New  Netherland,  we  may  already  recognize  an  in 
cipienl  stage  of  municipal  existence  for  the  settlement  on  Manhattan 
Island. 

The  first  Director-General  appointed  by  the  \Yest  India  Company 
was  l'eter  Minuit.  It  has  been  supposed  he  was  a  German,  because  he 
hailed  from  the  City  of  Wesel  on  the  Rhine.  But  as  we  learn  that  lie 
was  a  deacon  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  there,  we  at  once  see 
that  he  must  have  been  a  member  of  the  colony  of  Dutch  refugees 
from  persecution  who  made  Wesel  their  home  in  the  days  of  Aha.  It 
was  here  in  1568  thai  the  lirst  synod  of  the  Holland  churches  was 
held,  and  enough  of  the  refugees  would  naturally  establish  them- 
selves permanently  to  constitute  a  church.  The  director's  name.  loo. 
does  not  necessarily  indicate  a  German  origin,  but  is  decidedly  Dutch, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


19 


The  five  members  of  the  council  were  Peter  Bylvelt,  Jacob  Elbert  sen 
Wissiuk,  Johu  Jansen  Brouwer,  Simon  Dircksen  Pos,  and  Reynert 
Harmensen — all  good  solid  Dutch  names,  and  indicating  that  those 
who  bore  them  were  not  only  Dutchmen,  but  the  sous  of  Dutchmen. 
The  secretary  was  Isaac  de  Rasieres,  evidently  a  Walloon,  not  to  be 
wondered  at  when  so  many  of  that  people  made  up  the  colony.  Last- 
ly, the  Schout-fiscal,  or  treasurer,  was  John  Lampe,  which  might  be 
either  a  Dutch  or  a  Walloon  name. 

Peter  Minuit  and  his  council  (without  the  secretary,  who  went  in  a 
later  vessel)  sailed  from  Amsterdam  in  the  "  Sea  Mew  "  on  December 
19, 1025.  Detained  by  ice  in  the  Zuyder  Zee,«  the  harbor  of  Texel  was 
not  finally  cleared  till  January  9,  and  on  May  4,  1626 — an  eventful 
day,  therefore,  in  our  city's  history — the  "  Sea  Mew  "  arrived  before 
Manhattan  Island. 

The  first  act  of  the  colonial  government,  under  the  express  direc- 
tion of  the  authorities  at  home,  was  one  of  which  the  great  commer- 
cial metropolis  of  America  may  well  be  proud;  a  prime  incident  to 
record  among  her  annals.  It  was  well  that  her  foundations  were  laid 
in  honest  dealing  with  the  ignorant;  in  justice  and  integrity,  when 
the  law  of  nations  was  one  of  might  only,  with  no  regard  for  right, 
untutored  savages  being  a  party  to  the  transaction.  Indubitable  evi- 
dence of  what  took  place  so  early  in  our  city's  history  is  at  hand. 
Any  one  may  go  to  the  archives  at  The  Hague  in  Holland,  and,  upon 
request,  with  cordial  courtesy  will  be  shown  a  letter,  dated  November 
5, 1626.  It  is  the  identical  missive  that  was  sent  by  a  Mr.  P.  Schaghen 
— the  member  of  the  States  General  attending  the  "  Assembly  of  the 
XIX."  of  the  West  India  Company — to  his  colleagues  in  The  Hague, 
announcing  that  a  ship  had  arrived  the  day  before,  bringing  news 
from  Manhattan  Island.  The  all-important  item  reads:  "  They  h?ve 
bought  the  island  Manhattes  from  the  wild  men  for  the  value  of  sixty 
guilders;  it  is  11,000  morgens  in  extent."  Thus  for  $24  the  island, 
roughtly  estimated  as  containing  over  22,000  acres  of  land,  was  duly 
and  regularly  purchased  by  the  Company.  It  has  been  the  fashion  to 
ridicule  this  honorable  transaction;  to  sneer  at  it  as  practically  a 
cheat,  because  of  the  enormous  disproportion  of  price  to  the  value  of 
the  possession.  Even  royalty  has  been  represented  as  attempting  (it 
must  be  said  not  very  successfully)  to  sharpen  its  wits  upon  the  inci- 
dent. But  what  were  a  few  thousand  acres  of  land  to  the  Indians 
roaming  over  miles  of  it  continually,  compared  with  the  glittering 
glory  of  utensils  and  trinkets  and  gaudy  dress-stuffs  or  blankets,  to 
the  value  of  more  than  four  times  $24,  as  money  counted  in  that  day. 
It  was  an  honest,  honorable  transaction,  worthily  inaugurating  the 
trade  and  traffic  of  America's  mercantile  and  financial  capital;  satis- 
fying the  instincts  of  justice  and  equity  in  the  savage  breast;  and 
setting  an  example  that  was  not  conspicuously  followed  until  the 
days  of  Penn  in  Pennsylvania,  and  of  Oglethorpe  in  Georgia. 


20 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


adxj&a^  S^y-  U  ^  2.3  ^j^-fXT3.        ruju  7^&£ 

>vv  VflJcV  VJa^  13-^$,  iZ   xft^ott-  V.00  o  4vuvK-<r$> 

^^J^^k  ^p^,^  , 

7x4^  J?j£J±£  ^&->€ZJ) 


F AC-SIMILE  OF  SCHAGIIEN  l.KTTER. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


21 


The  first  act  having  been  properly  to  acquire  the  land  upon  which 
they  were  to  settle,  active  preparations  went  on  immediately  to  oc- 
cupy and  improve  it.  By  the  middle  of  May  the  farmers  had  broken 
ground  and  sown  their  grain;  and  before  the  ship  carrying  the  news 
of  the  purchase  sailed  to  Holland,  the  harvest  was  safely  and  abun- 
dantly gathered.  But  while  the  relations  with  the  Indians  were  be- 
gun upon  a  footing  of  friendship,  it  was  necessary  to  provide  against 
emergencies  in  case  of  neighbors  so  uncertain.  Our  Dutch  contem- 
porary historian  again  places  us  under  obligation  by  recording  that 
the  expedition  included  a  military  engineer,  and  he  even  gives  us  his 
name  as  Kryn  Frederickse.  Under  his  directions  the  lines  for  a  fort 
were  soon  laid  out,  on  the  spot  that  may  be  indicated  in  a  general 
way  as  the  block  bounded  to-day  by  Bridge,  Whitehall,  State  (or  Bat- 
tery Park)  streets  and  Bowling  Green.  Earthworks  rudely  thrown 
up  along  the  lines  marked  out  were  at  first  the  only  fortifications, 
but  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  these  were  faced  with  mason  work 
of  good  quarry  stone  on  the  inside.  At  the  same  time  a  storehouse 
was  put  up  of  stone,  or  of  brick  baked  on  the  spot  ;  but  it  is  difficult 
to  tell  which,  as  the  Dutch  word  "  steen  "  may  denote  either  one  or 
the  other.  This  necessary  building  was  erected  toward  the  east  of 
the  fort;  a  street  called  after  it,  YYinckel  Street,  is  no  longer  in  exist- 
ence, but  it  ran  parallel  to  Whitehall  and  Broad  streets,  and  about 
half  way  between.  A  mill,  whose  motive  power  was  a  literal  horse, 
was  also  constructed,  perhaps  of  boards,  and  it  is  Wassenaer  again 
who  tells  us  that  the  upper  loft  was  used  for  religious  services. 

An  interesting  episode  in  the  city's  early  history  was  a  sort  of 
formal  embassy  from  Manhattan  Island,  or  Fort  Amsterdam, to  Plym- 
outh Colony.  The  sturdy  Pilgrims  could  not  forget  that  they  were 
Englishmen;  so,  in  spite  of  their  feelings  of  gratitude  to  the  Dutr-h 
for  having  sheltered  them  so  long  from  their  sovereign's  wrath,  at 
Leyden  and  elsewhere,  they  could  not  refrain  themselves  from  call- 
ing in  question  the  title  of  the  West  India  Company  to  regions  that 
were  considered  to  be  a  part  of  Virginia,  and  therefore  claimed  to  be 
England's  property.  One  or  two  communications  by  letter  between 
Governor  Bradford  and  Director  Minuit  proving  unsatisfactory,  at 
Bradford's  request  a  responsible  member  of  the  government  was 
dispatched  to  Plymouth  for  a  personal  conference.  The  person  se- 
lected was  Secretary  de  Basieres.  He  had  arrived  in  July,  1G26,  in 
the  ship  The  Arms  of  Amsterdam,  which  in  September  returned 
to  Holland  with  the  news  of  the  purchase  of  Manhattan.  In  the 
spring  of  1627  he  set  out  on  this  important  mission,  attended  by  a 
party  of  soldiers  with  a  trumpeter,  as  a  guard  of  honor.  He  em- 
barked in  the  good  ship  Nassau,  which  threaded  its  course  safely 
through  treacherous  Hell  Gate,  and  smoothly  over  the  broad  bosom 
of  the  Sound,  and  landed  its  passengers  and  the  goods  intended  for 
presents  and  traffic  at  the  head  of  Buzzard's  Bay.    A  boat  was  sent 


22 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


from  Plymouth  as  far  as  it  would  go  up  the  creek  running  into  the 
peninsula  from  Cape  Cod  Bay,  and  in  it  de  Rasieres  took  passage.  Un- 
der the  gay  sound  of  trumpet  and  drum  the  Secretary  made  his  entry 
into  the  Pilgrim's  stronghold,  doubtless  met  near  the  famous  Bock  by 
Captain  Myles  Standish  and  liis  company,  drawn  up  in  approved  mili- 
tary style.  Thus  mutual  explanations  were  made  in  a  friendly  spirit, 
and  an  entente  corctiale  established  between  the  great  powers  occupy- 
ing isolated  portions  of  the  American  wilderness.  Those  were  the 
days  when  the  Dutch  could  still  teach  the  Yankees  a  trick  or  two; 
and  one  result  of  de  Rasieres's  visit  was  the  adoption  by  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  of  wampum,  or  beads,  as  currency,  in  negotiating  with  the 
Indians,  a  medium  long  before  in  use  between  the  Dutch  and  their 
savage  neighbors. 

Whatever  were  the  relations  with  other  colonies,  whatever  was 
doing  in  other  portions  of  New  Netherlands,  the  supreme  interest  for 
us  centers  upon  that  tongue  of  land,  that  lower  extremity  of  Man- 
hattan Island,  where  we  recognize  in  embryo  the  beginnings  of  the 
second  city  in  the  world.  And  we  are  fortunate  in  being  able  to 
bring  much  of  the  life  and  situation  of  those  primitive  days  before 
our  minds,  upon  the  most  authentic  information. 

Among  these  beginnings  it  is  not  improper  to  notice  thai  <>f 
church  organization.    This  was  only  two  years  behind  the  establish- 
ment  of  colonial   government.     Religious  services,  however,  were 
provided  for  at  the  very  commencement.   In  the  Director's  company 
arrived  two  lay  readers,  or  Visitors  of  the  Sick  (Krankehbesoekers), 
Sebastian  Jansen  (Vol,  and  Jan  Huyck  or  Iluyghen,  the  brother-in- 
law  of  Peter  Minuit.    These  conducted  services  in  the  upper  loft  of 
the  horse-mill  already  mentioned,  leading  the  singing,  reading  'he 
creed  and  commandments,  and  occasionally  a  sermon  from  some 
printed  volume.    But  in  1028  arrived  the  Rev.  Jonas  Michiels  (latin- 
ized into  Michaelius).   He  was  a  graduate  of  Leyden  University,  or- 
dained to  the  ministry  in  1600,  and  for  several  years  was  pastor  of 
the  churches  of  Nieuwbokswoude  and  Hem,  in  the  Classis  of  Enk- 
huizen,  North  Holland.    He  had  had  considerable  experience  of  colo- 
nial life  before  coming  to  Manhattan.    In  1024  he  was  sent  out  to  the 
recently  conquered  city  of  San  Salvador  in  Brazil.    In  ltllT)  we  find 
him  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  in  Guinea,  the  chaplain  of  the  fort  erected 
by  the  West  India  Company  there.    In  1(!27  he  was  back  in  Holland. 
But  it  was  high  time  a  minister  should  be  sent  out  to  Fori  Amster- 
dam, for  it  was  the  practice  both  of  the  Easl  India  and  West  India 
Companies  to  provide  each  of  their  colonies  with  a  clergyman  and 
schoolmaster.    So  the  West  India  directors  now  requested  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Michiels  to  serve  in  that  capacity  in  their  settlement  on  tin1  Hud- 
son.   He  sailed  from  Amsterdam  on  January  24,  1628,  and  arrived  <>n 
April  7t  h.    I  lis  wife  and  three  children  accompanied  him.  t  wo  of  them 
little  girls  of  a  very  lender  age,  and  so  hard  were  their  experiences 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


23 


on  board  ship  that  Mrs.  (or  Juffrouw)  Michiels  died  seven  weeks  after 
arrival.  The  domine  met  with  the  kindest  reception  from  the  rather 
rough  settlers.  He  at  once  organized  a  church.  Crol  having  gone  to 
Fort  Orange,  Director  Minuit,  who  had  been  a  deacon  in  the  Dutch 
church  of  Wesel,  and  his  brother-in-law  liuyghen,  who  had  been  an 
elder  of  the  Walloon  church  there,  were  duly  elected  elders  of  the 
Church  of  Fort  Amsterdam,  or  Manhattan.  This  being  done  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated,  and  several  were  received  into  the 
church  by  certificates  of  membership  from  churches  in  the  mother 
country.  A  few  who  had  forgotten  or  lost  these  papers  were  re- 
ceived on  the  testimony  of  others  that  they  were  members,  the  some- 
what unsettled  condition  of  things  making  impossible  the  strict  ob- 
servance of  all  the  usual  formalities.  Thus  fifty  communicants  par- 
took of  the  Sacrament,  and  constituted  the  first  regularly  organized 
church  society  on  Manhattan  Island  or  in  Greater  New  York.  It 
has  developed  since  into  the  well-known  corporation,  the  Collegiate 
Keformed  Protestant  Dutch  Church  of  New  York  City,  still  flourish- 
ing and  prominent  in  the  ecclesiastical  circles  of  the  metropolis. 
This  first  church  in  the  new  world  was  included  and  enrolled 
among  the  churches  of  the  Classis  of  Amsterdam.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  the  Collegiate  Reformed  Church  was  more  democratic  in 
its  beginnings  than  it  became  since  and  is  at  present;  for  while  now 
the  Consistory,  or  Board  of  Officers,  is  a  self-electing  body,  allowing 
no  vote  to  the  congregation,  these  elders  were  chosen  by  the  people. 
That  this  was  a  settled  policy  and  not  a  compulsory  expedient  at  the 
beginning,  admits  of  easy  proof,  for  Pastor  Michiels  was  "  intending 
the  coming  year,  if  the  Lord  permit,  to  let  one  of  them  [the  officers] 
retire,  and  to  choose  another  in  his  place,  from  a  double  number  first 
lawfully  proposed  to  the  congregation."  The  preaching  was  of 
course  in  Dutch,  yet  sometimes  to  please  the  Walloons  he  would  give 
them  a  sermon  in  French.  There  was  hardly  one  among  them  that 
did  not  sufficiently  understand  the  Dutch  language;  but  in  the  wor- 
ship of  the  heart  the  mother  tongue  has  ever  a  sweeter  and  a  dearer 
sound. 

If  we  could  have  placed  ourselves  at  that  early  period  upon  some 
neighboring  height  we  would  have  seen  before  us  the  little  fort,  only 
partially  finished.  Near  it  on  the  east  rose  the  modest  but  substan- 
tial Company's  Winckel,  or  storehouse.  Still  further  east  (perhaps 
somewhere  on  Mill  Street,  now  South  William)  stood  the  mill  that 
was  also  a  church.  Ere  long  the  horse-mill  for  grinding  corn  was  sup- 
plemented by  a  windmill  for  sawing  wood,  and  it  may  have  stood  on 
the  rise  of  ground  which  runs  up  Broadway  from  Bowling  Green. 
The  little  cabins  or  houses  of  the  settlers  were  scattered  in  irregular 
groups  among  these  larger  structures;  and  even  thus  early  the  record 
of  New  York's  conflagrations  had  begun.  One  winter's  night,  when 
the  fierce  cold  had  tempted  a  householder  to  pile  on  the  logs  and  urge 


24 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


them  to  too  fell  a  blaze,  the  puny  tinderbox  of  boards  and  bark  had 
taken  tire,  and  sent  the  flames  through  a  whole  group  of  like  dwell- 
ings. All  the  settlers,  however,  did  not  live  under  the  shadow  of  the 
fort.  Some  of  the  Walloons  came 
in  on  Sundays  from  quite  a  dis- 
tance, perhaps  from  Staten  Is- 
land and  the  Wallabout.  perhaps 
even  as  early  as  this  from  Har- 
lem plains  or  from  beyond  the 
Harlem  River. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  living- 
was  luxurious  at  Fort  Amster- 
dam. The  widowed  domine  could 
obtain  no  maid  servants  to  attend 
his  two  little  daughters,  and  his  boy-servant  was  of  so  little  use  to  him 
that  he  lent  him  to  the  farmers,  who  were  short  of  hands.  Butter 
and  milk  could  be  obtained  only  at  a  high  figure,  for  they  were 
scarcely  sufficient  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  farmers'  families  them- 
selves. Thus  most  of  the  food  wherewith  the  denizens  of  Manhattan 
had  to  content  themselves  was  hard  and  stale,  doled  out  often  like- 
rations  on  shipboard  and  in  insufficient  quantity,  so  that  hunger 
could  not  have  been  an  unusual  experience.  Beans,  gray,  hard  peas, 
barley,  dried  codfish — behold  the  bill  of  fare  for  the  precursors  of  the 
patrons  of  Delmonico  and  Sherry  and  Taylor. 

The  land  seemed  to  be  all  thai  could  be  desired.  It  yielded  abun- 
dant harvests  from  year  to  year;  but  the  soil  needed  much  tilling  and 
clearing  and  manuring.  The  climate  was  marked  then  as  now  by 
sudden  changes  of  temperature,  the  sun  being  very  hot  as  compared 
with  Holland,  and  the  winters  far  more  severe  and  quite  as  long. 
At  that  season  everybody  clad  himself  in  rough  skins,  and  wood  was 
plentiful  enough  to  prevent  suffering.  But  the  farmers  were  handi- 
capped by  the  lack  of  horses  and  cattle.  Laborers,  too.  were  few,  and 
often  labor  was  difficult  because  of  insufficient  or  unwholesome  food. 
These  difficulties  continued  longer  than  they  might  perhaps,  because 
the  council  were  men  of  little  experience  in  public  affairs,  and  had 
no  intelligent  view  of  the  situation  and  of  its  remedies.  There  seems 
to  have  been  also  a  lack  of  definite  regulations  on  the  part  of  the 
West  India  Company  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  in  the  emergencies 
likely  to  arise  in  so  wild  a  region. 

By  the  side  of  agriculture,  industry  and  manufacture,  more1  of  a 
piece  with  our  city's  doings  in  these  later  days,  seem  also  to  have 
made  a  fair  beginning.  Wood  was  cut  in  such  abundance  that  there 
were  not  ships  enough  to  carry  it  away,  and  a  windmill  was  erected 
to  cut  it  into  timber.  Brick  yards  were  established,  but  the  brick 
baked  was  of  a  poor  quality.  Oyster  shells  were  burned  for  lime,  and 
kilns  for  t  he  purpose  sent  up  1  heir  smoky  volumes.    The  manufacture 


WEST  INDIA  COMPANY'S  8TOREHOU8E. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


25 


of  potash  was  attempted,  but  it  did  not  work  well.  Stone  w  as  quar- 
ried for  the  fort.  And  the  briny  water  of  the  surrounding  bays  and 
rivers  was  exposed  in  pans  to  the  excessive  heat  of  the  sun,  for  the 
making  of  salt. 

A  curious  picture  is  afforded  of  the  intercourse  of  the  settlers  with 
the  natives.  They  are  not  spoken  of  in  complimentary  terms  by 
Domine  Michiels,  although  the  point  of  view  of  the  theologian  may 
have  made  their  conspicuous  deficiencies  so  tempting  a  confirmation 
of  the  Calvinistic  dogma  of  total  depravity  that  lie  was  led  to  insist 
on  evidences  of  it  a  little  beyond  the  facts.  The  interchange  of  ideas 
between  the  races  must  have  been  rather  defective,  for  the  Indians 
did  not  seem  anxious  to  have  the  newcomers  learn  their  language. 
They  would  half  utter  their  words,  or  break  their  sentences  in  two, 
and  call  a  dozen  things  by  the  same  name.  Thus  often  a  Dutchman 
would  imagine  he  had  learned  the  language  pretty  well,  when  to  his 
surprise  he  would  be  as  much  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  his  savage 
neighbor  as  before  he  began.  So,  in  the  end,  the  settlers  were  content 
to  communicate  with  the  Indians  only  on  the  subject  of  trade,  where 
signs  with  the  fingers  did  more  than  words.  Ferhaps  the  Indians 
were  not  so  stupid  after  all,  and  had  their  own  purpose  in  making  it 
impossible  for  the  strangers  to  understand  what  they  were  saying  to 
each  other. 

Peter  Minuit  does  not  cut  a  very  prominent  figure  in  the  annals 
of  these  early  days.  Yet  he  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  efficiency, 
and  diligent  in  the  performance  of  his  duties.  One  or  two  enter- 
prises that  he  was  directly  connected  with  deserve  notice,  but  these 
unfortunately  led  to  his  recall.  The  abundance  of  the  timber  was  of 
course  conspicuous.  In  1630  it  occurred  to  two  of  the  Walloon  colo- 
nists that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to 
give  the  home  country  ocular  proof 
of  it,  and  also  of  the  great  size  of  the 
pieces  that  could  be  cut,  by  construct- 
ing a  vessel  phenomenally  large  for 
those  days.  Minuit  approved  of  the 
scheme,  and  pledged  the  funds  of  the 
Company  in  aid  of  it.  So  in  that  year 
there  was  built  on  the  shores  of  Man- 
hattan one  of  the  largest  ships  the 
world  had  then  ever  heard  of.  It  was 
of  twelve  hundred  tons  burden,  and 
was  named  the  New  Netherland. 
But  it  wras  a  sort  of  white  elephant; 
indeed  it  proved  to  be  as  to  its  com- 
parative size,  and  its  uselessness  and  ill  fortune,  the  forerunner 
of  the  Great  Eastern;  and  as  the  Company  did  not  enjoy  such  em- 
ployment of  their  funds,  it  counted  as  a  charge  against  the  Director- 
General. 


AN  OLD  DUTCH  HOUSE. 


26 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Another  complaint  against  him,  quite  as  unjust,  grew  out  of  the 
creation  of  the  Patroonships,  so  well  known  to  history.  In  1G29  it 
Was  felt  that  something  must  bo  done  to  stimulate  the  colonizing  of 
New  Netherlands  Hence  large  tracts  of  land  were  promised  to  any 
person,  or  company,  who  would  send  out  fifty  or  more  colonists. 
These  tracts,  counted  by  the  square  miles  instead  of  acres,  were  to  be 
the  property  of  such  person,  or  company,  who  was  called  the  Patroon 
of  the  settlement — in  short,  a  sort  of  feudal  lord.  In  the  vicinity  of 
New  York  this  offer  bore  fruit  in  the  establishment  of  the  Patroonship 
of  Pavonia.  This  embraced  at  first  only  the  territory  now  covered  by 
Hoboken  and  Jersey  City;  but  soon  the  Patroon  added  Staten  Island 
to  the  other  tract,  and  thus  invaded  the  territory  of  Greater  New 
York.  Manhattan  Island  was  expressly  excluded  from  the  offers  of 
the  Company.  But  parts  of  Westchester  County,  now  in  New  York, 
were  afterward  thus  held. 

Noav  it  seems  that  while  the  scheme  of  the  Patroonships  was 
awaiting  the  approval  of  the  Dutch  Government,  several  of  ihe 
directors  of  the  West  India  Company  took  advantage  of  their  being 
"  on  the  ground  floor,"  to  walk  into  the  privileges  promised  before 
outsiders  had  a  chance.  They  had  selected  through  agents  the 
choicest  spots,  and  were  ready  with  their  claims  the  moment  the 
government  approved  the  measure.  This  shrewdness  on  the  part  of 
a  few  disgusted  the  directors  of  the  Company  who  had  not  been  quite 
so  alert,  and  their  annoyance  vented  itself  upon  the  Director-Gen- 
eral. It  was  supposed  he  had  favored  the  schemes  of  the  successful 
Patroons,  although  he  had  been  helpless  in  the  matter,  and  had 
simply  obeyed  the  instructions  that  had  come.  The  Stales  General, 
disapproving  of  the  excessive  land-grants,  and  holding  Minuit  re- 
sponsible for  their  enormous  extent  in  every  instance,  demanded  his 
recall.  So  in  L633,  accompanied  by  Treasurer  Lampe,  and  also,  it  is 
supposed,  by  Domino  Michiels.  Peter  Minuit  embarked  in  the  En- 
dracht,  and  returned  to  Holland. 


from  a  Colored  Map  locating  the 
present  Streets,  by 
Henry  Dunreath  Tyler 
46  Wall  St,  New  York. 


ORIGINAL  GUtf^  \   X  f ,  ^ 


to  the  inhabitants  of 

IN  EW  -  AMSTERDAM , 

i  now  M.W  -  YOU  K.) 
lying  below  the  presen  I  I  in,  of  Wall  Slice/ 
Gran  to  comment  in£  A.l).  If)  'i  — . 

Located  from  historical  &  1c£al  records. 


Now  York  1«»7. 


C  HAPTER  II, 

UNDER  THE  DUTCH  FLAG. 

HE  first  of  that  dynasty  of  Dutch  colonial  potentates  im- 
mortalized by  the  pages  of  Diedrich  Knickerbocker,  was 
not  the  man  whom  we  have  just  seen  departing  from  these 
shores,  but  Walter  Van  Twiller.  Doubtless  for  the  arrival 
of  that  astonishing  vessel  the  Goede  Vrouw,  and  for  the  settle- 
ment in  the  mud  of  Communipaw,  and  for  the  exploring  voyages  of 
Oloff  Van  Kortlandt,  the  Dreamer, — the  learned  Knickerbocker  had 
access  to  documents  which  have  unfortunately  escaped  us.  But  as 
the  only  historian  of  repute  who  wrote  and  published  before  Knick- 
erbocker, begins  the  story  of  Dutch  colonial  rule  with  Van  Twiller, 
and  has  only  some  slight  suspicions  of  Minuit,  we  may  make  a 
shrewd  guess  as  to  the  sources  whence  old  Diedrich  drew  his  stores 
of  information  when  it  came  to  real  history.  It  would  be  well,  there- 
fore, wThile  we  continue  to  laugh  over  his  diverting  pages,  to  be  some- 
what cautious  about  receiving  their  testimony  regarding  facts  and 
conditions  therein  described. 
Already  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter we  have  given  a  glimpse  of 
the  Dutch  which  hardly  tallies 
with  Knickerbocker's  account 
of  them.  By  him — Lowell  re- 
marks, with  a  dash  of  indigna- 
tion in  his  words — by  him, 
"  the  ships  of  the  greatest  navi- 
gators in  the  world  were  rep- 
resented as  sailing  equally 
well  stern-foremost."  It  wras  a 
pity  that  in  the  service  of 
humor  Irving  should  have  al- 
lowed himself  these  unrelieved 
misrepresentations;  for  they 
fell  too  cordially  into  line  with 
the  scorn  which  the  republican 
Dutch  had  long  suffered  at  the  hands  of  those  who  hated  their  princi- 
ples. "  For  more  than  a  century  " — to  cite  Lowell  again — "  the  Dutch 
were  the  laughing-stock  of  polite  Europe.    .    .    .    Meanwhile,  dur- 


EARLIEST  MAP  OF  NEW  YORK. 


28 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in^i  thai  very  century  of  scorn,  they  were  the  best  artists,  sailors, 
merchants,  bankers,  printers,  scholars,  jurisconsults,  and  statesmen 
in  Europe."  It  was  this  habit  of  scornful  contemplation  of  t he 
Dutch  which  made  [rving's  jeu  d'esprii  so  inopportune,  and  caused 
a  rollicking  piece, of  humor  to  become  a  most  harmful  ami  almost 
irreparable  defamation  of  the  Dutch.  The  world  of  letters  was  too 
ready  to  accept  caricatures  as  facts  with  regard  to  them. 

Walter  Van  Twiller,  the  second  Director-General  of  New  Nether- 
land,  arrived  at  his  post  on  Manhattan  Island,  in  the  "  Salt-Moun- 
tain "  (Zout  Berg),  in  April,  1633.  His  council  was  composed  of  four 
members:  Captain  John  Jansen  Uesse,  Martin  Geiritseu,  Andrew 
lludde,  and  Jacques  Bentyn.  John  van  (or  de)  Remund,  had  suc- 
ceeded to  Rasieres  as  secretary,  so  that  this  official  again,  as  well  as 
the  last  named  of  the  council,  represented  the  Walloou  element  in  the 
government  circle.  The  secretary  tinder  Minuit  received  the  munifi- 
cent salary  of  $15  per  month,  and  no  doubt  this  was  Remund's  sti- 
pend also  under  the  new  administration.  The  Schout  or  Sheriff, 
whose  main  province  of  authority  was  to  be  Manhattan  rather  than 
New  Netherlands  was  Conrad  Notelman.  The  presence  of  a  military 
man.  Captain  llesse,  in  the  council,  was  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  a  company  of  one  hundred  and  four  soldiers  came  over  in  the 
same  ship  with  the  Director.  This  was  a  rather  formidable  propor- 
tion of  army  to  citizens,  when  we  reflect  that  only  a  few  years  before, 
at  a  time  of  temporary  panic,  when  nearly  all  New  Netherland  was 
gathered  under  the  walls  of  Fori  Amsterdam  as  chickens  are 
gathered  under  a  hen's  maternal  wirfgs  in  the  hour  of  peril,  the 
whole  Dumber  of  souls  did  not  exceed  two  hundred  and  seventy,  or 
six  less  than  were  in  the  ship  with  Paul  when  it  went  to  pieces  oil  the 
island  of  Malta.  This  earliest  census  of  Greater  New  York,  dated 
Ki2S,  is  worth  remembering  as  we  count  our  present  millions. 

There  must  have  been  Dutchmen  and  Dutchmen  in  Van  Twiller's 
day.  as  there  are  Dutchmen  and  Dutchmen,  or  Yankees  and  Yankees, 
to-day,  or  any  time.  That  is,  there  are  always  exceptions  to  the  rule. 
And  Van  Twiller  was  of  a  kind  to  almost  justify  [rving's  wildest 
caricatures,  lie  gave  evidence  of  his  litness  to  figure  as  clown  in  any 
book  that  wished  to  make  him  one,  only  a  few  days  after  his  arrival 
at  Manhattan.  On  April  L3,  Hi::.",,  an  English  ship,  the  "  William," 
guided  by  a  Dutchman  who  used  to  be  in  the  employ  of  the  West 
India  Company  at  Albany,  or  Fort  Orange,  came  up  the  Hay.  and 
coolly  proceeded  to  go  up  the  river.  Of  course  she  was  hailed  and 
ordered  to  stop.  Her  crew  was  summoned  on  shore  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  themselves.  The  captain  claimed  that  the  Hudson's  river 
and  all  adjoining  territories  were  English  property,  and  the  ship  had 
a  perfect  right  to  trade  there.  This  was  denied.  But  on  being  per- 
mitted to  return  to  their  vessel,  the  captain  defied  the  director's 
protest,  and  gayly  sailed  northward  out  of  sight.    Then  did  the  val- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


29 


CAPTAIN  DAVID  PIETERZ  DE  VKIES. 


iant  Walter  summon  citizens  and  soldiers  to  the  water's  edge,  and, 
broaching  a  cask  of  the  Company's  best  wine,  bade  every  one  drink 
the  health  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  the  confusion  of  his  enemies, 
as  a  mode  of  asserting  the  Dutch  title  to  New  Netherland.  The  as- 
sertion was  very  cordially  indorsed,  but  it  did  not  stop  the  progress 


30 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  the  William.  A  more  effective  method  to  secure  that  end  was 
followed  at  the  instance  of  a  quite  different  stamp  of  man,  who  had 
arrived  at  Manhattan  almost  simultaneously  with  the  director. 
This  was  Captain  David  Pietersen  de  Vries,  one  of  the  Patroons  of 
the  Swanendael  Estate  on  the  Delaware,  a  man  of  great  capacity  in 
affairs  and  decision  of  character,  whose  frequent  appearances  upon 
the  stage  in  this  early  history  of  the  colony  were  invariably  creditable 
to  himself  and  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  community.  By  his  ad- 
vice a  force  of  soldiers  was  sent  after  the  intruding  stranger,  and 
thus  their  impudent  trade  with  the  Indians  upon  Dutch  territory 
was  effectually  stopped. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Province  of  New  Netherland  had  hither- 
to yielded  the  West  India  Company  any  very  large  profits.  In  the 
year  preceding  Van  Twillers  arrival,  the  largest  figure  in  the  ex- 
ports of  furs  had  been  reached — 143,125  florins.  But  imports  of  vari- 
ous goods  and  wares  for  the  support  of  the  colonists  and  to  purchase 
peltries  to  the  amount  of  31,320  florins,  offset  the  other;  while  in  1631 
there  had  been  no  exports  at  all,  and  the  imports  at  the  cost  of  the 
Company  had  amounted  to  17,355  florins.  De  Laet,  the  historian  of 
the  Company,  and  one  of  its  directors,  sums  up  the  exports  and  im- 
ports for  nine  years  from  1624  to  1632,  and  makes  the  total  of  the  one 
454,127  florins,  and  of  the  other  272,847  florins;  leaving  a  net  gain  of 
181,280  florins,  or  $72,512,  a  little  over  $8,000  per  annum. 

Surely  this  was  nothing  to  boast  of  by  the  side  of  the  millions 
yielded  by  the  single  happy  capture  of  a  silver  fleet.  But  the  well-lined 
coffers  of  the  Company,  as  a  result  of  these  more  brilliant  exploits, 
enabled  them  to  put  funds  into  Van  Twiller's  hands  for  the  purpose 
of  making  things  more  comfortable  and  attractive  on  Manhattan 
Island,  thereby  inducing  larger  colonization,  and  securing  eventually 
more  satisfactory  returns.  At  once  upon  Van  Twiller's  arrival, 
preparations  were  begun  for  completing  the  fort.  Its  walls  were 
now  strongly  faced  with  stone  on  the  inside.  Barracks  for  the  sol- 
diers were  built  along  the  west  wall,  and  a  commodious  house  for  the 
Governor  along  the  east  wall,  inside  the  quadrangle.  The  principal 
gate  was  on  the  north,  guarded  by  a  small  redoubt  called  a  horn, 
where  Bowling  Green  is  now.  There  was  a  small  gate  on  the  water- 
side, for  the  river  came  close  up  against  the  fort,  all  that  ground  now 
forming  Battery  Park  having  been  since  filled  in.  A  saw  mill  was 
erected  on  Nooten  (now  Governor's)  Island.  A  windmill  also  was 
placed  u] ton  the  sont  lieast  corner  of  the  fort  iti cat  ions,  thus  st  rangely 
combining  ihe  pursuits  of  peace  and  war;  though  it  may  well  be  that 
the  mill  also  effectively  served  the  purposes  of  war.  The  savages 
must  have  looked  with  awe  and  alarm  upon  the  strange  object  with 
its  wildly  gyrating  arms. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  present  administration  was  the  divi- 
sion of  the  territory  of  the  lower  portion  of  Manhattan  Island  into 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


31 


farms,  carefully  measured  and  numbered.  These  farms  bore  a  name 
in  Dutch  which  has  become  quite  familiar  in  our  city's  history,  and 
still  designates  a  famous  and  somewhat  unique  thoroughfare.  The 
Dutch  name  was  "  Bouwerij  "  or  "  Bouwerei,"  meaning  land  to  be 
cultivated;  but  the  form  of  the  word  has  been  anglicized  phoneti- 
cally into  Bowery.  There  were  six  of  these  "  bouweries."  A  tract 
called  the  "  Company's  Garden  "  stretched  from  the  fort  to  about 
Wall  Street  on  the  west  of  Broadway,  a  very  narrow  strip,  as  the 
ground  covered  by  Greenwich  and  Washington  Streets  was  not  yet 
"  made."  Beyond  this  garden  lay  farm  No.  1,  reaching  perhaps 
about  as  far  as  Chambers  Street.  No.  3  went  up  to  the  borders  of  the 
later  Greenwich  village,  and  No.  5  must  have  included  the  territory 
thus  designated  subsequently.  Gn  the  east  side  of  a  road  which  after- 
ward became  famous  as  our  Broadway,  lay  farms  2,  4,  and  0,  of  which 
No.  4  embraced  the  spot  then  sometimes  called  the  "  plain  of  Man- 
hattan," subsequently  better  known  as  the  Commons  and  City  Hall 
Park.  Thus  were  the  farms  laid  out;  but  they  were  by  no  means 
all  occupied.  It  is  upon  these  silent  solitudes  of  tangled  forests,  and 
weedy  creeks,  and  sluggish  ponds,  with  only  here  and  there  a  fur- 
rowed field,  or  rolling  pasture,  and  scarce  a  house  anywhere,  that 
now  are  seen  the  huge  "  cloud-capped  towers  and  gorgeous  palaces  " 
of  business.  As  more  colonists  came  out,  and  occasional  vessels 
arrived  with  cattle  and  horses,  the  agricultural  returns  were  increas- 
ingly encouraging.  Besides  ordinary  farm  products,  canary  seed 
was  experimented  with,  even  the  "Arms  of  Amsterdam,"  in  1626, 
carrying  specimens  of  that  article.  But  there  was  undoubted  suc- 
cess attained  in  the  cultivation  of  tobacco.  Two  Englishmen  from 
Virginia,  George  Holmes  and  Thomas  Hall,  introduced  its  culture, 
and  they  were  given  a  generous  reception  among  the  colonists.  Bv 
a  somewhat  artificial  expedient  Fort  Amsterdam,  as  the  settlement 
was  called,  was  made  the  beneficiary  of  the  fur  trade  going  on 
throughout  the  whole  province.  It  was  given  the  stapel-recht,  or 
"  staple-right,"  which  Holland's  earliest  Count  Dirk  had  bestowed 
upon  his  capital  city  of  Dortrecht  somewhere  about  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century.  That  is,  all  the  peltries  gathered  throughout  New 
Netherland  by  Dutch  vessels  had  to  be  brought  to  Manhattan,  there 
to  be  weighed  or  priced,  and  some  kind  of  duty  exacted  before  final 
shipment.  De  Laet's  records  show  that  in  1633  peltry  exports  had 
fallen  off  from  the  previous  year  to  only  91,375  florins'  worth.  But 
in  1635  they  had  again  run  up  to  the  value  of  134,925  florins  (f 53,770); 
but,  as  is  seen,  even  this  was  less  than  the  exports  of  1632.  Hence 
the  West  India  Company  continued  to  complain  of  their  unprofitable 
venture  in  the  untoward  climate  of  North  America,  compared  to 
what  they  drew  from  the  more  genial  coasts  of  Guiana  and  Brazil. 

In  the  same  ship  with  Director  Van  Twiller  arrived  the  Rev.  Ever- 
ardus  Bogardus  (in  Dutch,  Evert  Bogert)  to  be  the  pastor  of  the 


32 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


church  already  organized,  and  the  first  schoolmaster,  Adam  Koe- 
landsen.  There  may  not  have  been  a  very  great  number  of  children 
on  the  island,  or  perhaps  their  desire  for  learning  was  not  consum- 
ing. At  any  rate  Schoolmaster  Roelandsen  found  it  expedient,  in 
addition  to  his  pedagogical  duties,  to  assume  the  conduct  of  a 
"  bleekery,"  or  bleachery;  that  is,  a  washing  establishment,  such  as 
are  carried  on  upon  a  large  scale  in  Holland  by  reason  of  the  enor- 
mous quantities  of  linen  possessed  by  every  household.  The  school 
was  undoubtedly  held  in  connection  with  the  church,  and  probably 
in  the  same  building. 

For  a  church  edifice  there  now  soon  arose,  in  the  wake  of  that  ac- 
tivit}'  in  building  which  came  with  the  advent  of  the  new  Director. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  a  large  expenditure  of  money  was  permitted 
for  this  sacred  purpose,  as  compared  with  those  for  civic  structures. 
"  Rude  materials  "  it  is  told  us,  very  likely  plain  boards,  were  used  in 
its  construction.  What  its  shape  was  is  not  recorded,  but  it  was 
later  compared  to  a  barn  by  Captain  de  Yries.  It  stood  where  now 
avc  hnd  33  Pearl  Street.  Gradually  clusters  of  houses  followed  the 
lines  of  the  fort  or  the  contour  of  the  shore.  The  river  front  came  up 
as  far  as  Pearl  Street  iu  that  early  day,  and  the  block  from  present 
Whitehall  Street  to  Broad,  was  called  "the  Strand"  (or  "the 
Water"  sometimes).  Among  the  rude  neighboring  houses  or  cabins 
of  the  congregation  rose  now  this  modest  ecclesiastical  edifice,  the 
first  to  grace  or  bless  Manhattan  Island.  Perhaps  a  "  pastorie"  or 
parsonage  was  soon  built  for  Domine  Bogardus,  on  Whitehall  near 
Bridge,  or  Bridge  near  Whitehall,  depending  upon  what  part  of  the 
lot  the  house  was  put.  Bogardus  was  a  widower,  however,  at  this 
time,  and  may  not  have  been  in  a  hurry  for  a  house.  We  shall  tind  as 
the  years  go  on  that  the  Domine  was  not  of  a  mild  temperament. 
He  felt  called  upon  to  pay  his  compliments  publicly  to  Director  Van 
Twiller,  rebuking  him  for  alleged  malfeasance  in  office.  He  called 
him  a  "  child  of  the  devil  "  (een  duyveVs  kmd),  and  promised  to  give 
him  a  shake  from  tin1  pulpit.  And  under  Kieft  things  came  to  a  pass 
much  Avorse.  It  is  rather  sad  to  note  these  unfriendly  relations  be- 
tween the  civil  and  religious  powers,  as  compared  with  the  excellent 
harmony  and  co-operation  existing  under  Minuit. 

Walter  Van  Twiller  was  not  altogether  undeserving  of  the  threat- 
ened pulpit  shake-up.  He  was  given  to  land  speculation  on  a  large 
scale.  The  scale  was  only  large  in  the  way  of  acres  then:  could  his 
transactions  have  been  transferred  to  these  days,  it  would  have  been 
enormous  also  in  the  way  of  dollars.  He  made  use  of  his  official  posi- 
tion to  get  possession  of  Pagganck,  or  ^'ut  Island  mow  Governor's); 
and  to  match  this  insular  property  he  quite  symmetrically  added  to 
it  a  few  other  islands  in  the  Hast  River.  Some  of  his  council  fol- 
lowed so  excellent  an  example  and  voted  themselves  a  goodly  portion 
of  Greater  New  York.    Fifteen  thousand  acres  on  Long  Island,  now 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


33 


including  the  Town  of  Flatlands,  a  part  of  Brooklyn,  were  thus  di- 
vided between  them.  It  was  a  strange  fact  thai  while  the  six  com- 
pany farms  were  poorly  stocked  and  hardly  profitable,  Van  Twiller 
and  his  henchmen  were  signally  prosperous  as  farmers.  LubbeHus 
Van  Dincklagen,  who  had  succeeded  Notelman  ;is  Schout,  remon- 
strated with  the  Director-Gen- 
eral; so  he  w;is  dismissed 
from  his  office,  minus  arrears 
for  salary,  and  shipped  to  Hol- 
land. But  this  act  of  disci- 
pline proved  a  sort  of  boom- 
erang for  the  Director.  His 
official  irregularities,  his  fre- 
quent debaucheries,  his  ex- 
ceedingly questionable  private 
life,  were  plainly  laid  before 
the  West  India  Company  by 
Van  Dincklagen.  Indeed,  the 
case  against  Van  Twiller  ap- 
peared so  clear  that  he  was 
dismissed  from  his  office.  He 
seemed  to  care  little  for  the  disgrace,  remaining  in  the  colony  to  make 
the  most  that  he  could  of  his  lands,  possessing,  besides  his  islands  in 
the  East  River,  a  colony  on  Staten  Island,  and  a  tobacco  plantation 
and  dwelling  house  on  Manhattan.  He  also  dealt  in  cattle,  with  great 
success;  for  in  the  general  dearth  of  cattle  he  profited  largely  by 
letting  out  his  oavu  abundant  and  excellent  stock  to  his  neighbors. 

William  Kieft,  the  next  Director-General  of  New  Nether-land, 
reached  Manhattan  or  Fort  Amsterdam  on  March  28,  1038.  Of  his 
antecedents  very  little  is  known,  and  that  little  not  of  a  savory  char- 
acter. Once  a  bankrupt  in  business,  and  accused,  though  not  convict- 
ed, of  having  defrauded  captives  in  Turkish  powrer  of  their  ransom, 
it  is  hard  to  understand  why  the  West  India  Company  sent  out  a 
person  of  a  reputation  so  shady  to  be  the  chief  personage  in  their  col- 
ony of  New  Netherland.  They  must  have  held  the  enterprise  there  in 
supreme  contempt,  especially  when  almost  at  the  same  time  they 
sent  out  as  their  Governor-General  in  Brazil  no  less  a  person  than 
John  Maurice,  Count  of  Nassau,  a  cousin  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
Tradition  has  it  that  Kieft  was  a  man  of  small  stature.  His  mind 
was  no  larger  than  his  body;  he  was  self-willed  and  vindictive,  and  by 
his  cruelty,  born  perhaps  of  timidity,  he  brought  shame  and  disaster 
alike  upon  the  Dutch  name  and  the  Dutch  possessions.  lie  came  pre- 
pared to  exercise  to  the  full  the  petty  tyranny  in  which  such  a  soul  as 
his  would  particularly  delight.  His  council  consisted  of  a  single  per- 
son, Dr.  John  de  la  Montague,  who  had  fled  to  Holland  from  persecu- 
tion in  his  native  France.    To  make  this  arrangement  more  farcical 


WATER  GATE,  FOOT  OF  WALL  STREET. 


•3± 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


still,  be  gave  one  vote  to  the  doctor  and  claimed  two  for  himself.  It 
seems  impossible  that  the  West  India  Company  should  have  ordered 
or  sanctioned  a  scheme  ol'  government  so  ridiculous  as  this.  There  was 
a  provincial  secretary,  Cornelius  Van  Tienhoven,  and  a  Schout-fiscal, 
as  before.  But  Kieft  was  determined  to  be  sovereign  in  the  colony. 
"  1  have  more  power  here,"  he  said  at  one  time,  "  than  the  Company 
itself;  therefore,  1  may  do  and  allow  in  this  country  what  1  please.  1 
am  my  own  master,  for  1  have  my  commission  not  from  the  Company, 
but  from  the  States-General."  The  prospects  of  the  infant  colony 
could  not  have  been  of  the  brightest,  with  such  a  man  to  direct  their 
affairs. 

Yet  there  was  much  to  raise  people's  expectations  at  the  beginning 
of  I  he  reign  of  William  the  Testy.  Kieft  was  a  man  of  energy  and 
business  activity.  Among  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  put  in  good 
order  the  Company's  bouweries,  and  as  the  promise  of  better  terms 
and  vigorous  management  was  made  widely  known  in  the  home  coun- 
try, a  number  of  colonists  of  the  better  class  began  to  come  over. 
These  leased  or  purchased  tracts  of  land  in  various  portions  of 
Creator  New  York.  Ex-Director  Van  Twiller,  pocketing  the  disgrace 
of  his  removal,  added  to  his  former  plantations  by  leasing  Company's 
farm  No.  5,  embracing  the  later  Village  of  Greenwich,  a  tract  called 
by  the  Indians  Sapohanican.  Not  to  be  behind  his  chief,  Andreas 
Hudde,  the  ex-councilor,  not  satisfied  with  the  pan  ownership  of 
Platlands,  secured  the  lease  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land  in  the 
northeasl  corner  of  Manhattan,  or  j>art,f>f  the  present  Harlem.  In  the 
vicinity,  or  in  that  part  of  Harlem  lying  between  Eighth  Avenue  and 
the  Harlem  River,  was  Councilor  La  .Montague's  plantation  of  "  Yro- 
dendael  "  (Peacedale),  and  Secretary  Van  Tienhoven  leased  and  oper- 
ated a  farm  on  the  Harlem  exactly  opposite,  thus  near  Motthaven. 
Joachim  Petersen  Kuyter  had  another  plantation  bordering  on  the 
Harlem,  which  he  styled  Zegendael  (BlissVale),  and  donas  Bronck 
opposite  him,  cultivated  a  tract  running  from  the  Harlem  to  the 
Bronx  River,  naming  i!  "  Emmaus."  Meanw  hile  de  Vries  had  come 
to  t  he  colony  again  late  in  L638,  and  started  a  colony  on  Staten  Island 
for  the  Patroon  Cornelius  Melyn,  who  arrived  with  Kuyter  in  L639. 
De  Vries  also  settled  on  a  farm  on  Manhattan  about  t  wo  miles  north 
of  the  foil.  Coney  Island  was  embraced  within  a  lease  then  given, 
and  later  Kieft  purchased  from  the  Indians  for  the  Company  a  tract 
of  land  reaching  from  Coney  Island  to  (iowanus,  opposite  Governor's 
Island. 

Last,  bin  by  no  means  least,  must  be  mentioned  Adriaen  Yander 
Donck,  who  came  to  Manhattan  from  Kensselaerswyck,  a  doctor  of 
laws,  and  a  Jonkheer,  or  Yonker,  a  kind  of  squire  or  night.  For  ini 
portanl  services  rendered  he  acquired,  in  1  <»-!*».  as  Patroon,  a  large 
tract  of  land  running  north  along  the  Hudson  from  Spuyten  Duyvil 
( "reek  beyond  i  he  present  Yonkors  (which  derives  its  name  from  him). 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


35 


and  back  to  the  Saw  Mill  River.  Thus  another  portion  of  Greater 
New  York  was  occupied,  and  a  man  of  importance,  who  made  his 
presence  notably  felt  in  later  years,  was  added  to  the  population  gath- 
ering around  the  fort. 


3(>  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

Before  the  Indian  wars  which  devastated  the  Greater  New  York 
territory  from  one  end  to  the  other  during  Kieft's  term  had  reached 
their  height,  several  remarkable  settlements  had  taken  place  within 
that  territory.  These  were  made  by  various  people  of  the  Anabap- 
tist persuasion,  who  were  subjected  to  tierce  persecution  in  the  col- 
onies controlled  by  the  Puritans.  In  New  Xetherland  they  received 
a  hearty  welcome.  They  were  permitted  to  lease  or  purchase  land  ou 
favorable  terms.  Prominent  among  the  leaders  of  these  companies 
were  two  ladies,  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson  and  Lady  .Moody.  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  came  lirst  to  .Massachusetts  in  L634,  but  in  Hi.'JS  she  was 
forced  into  exile.  Then  for  a  while  she  sought  refuge  in  Rhode 
Island,  but  after  her  husband's  death  she  came  to  New  Xetherland, 
feeling  more  secure  from  the  arm  of  Puritan  persecution  there.  In 
1(542  she  and  her  adherents  settled  at  IVlhani  Neck,  where  the  Hutch- 
inson River  still  Hows  in  that  extreme  northeast  corner  of  the  an- 
nexed district,  to  remind  us  of  her  presence.  A  year  later  Lady 
Moody  settled  at  ( i  ra  vesend,  Long  Island,  lately  incorporated  into 
Brooklyn,  now  quite  at  t  he  southern  Limit  of  <  rreater  New  York.  She 
had  sought  freedom  of  Opinion  in  religion  near  Salem,  Mass.,  and  was 
for  a  time  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church  there.  But  her 
convictions  regarding  infant  baptism  could  not  be  tolerated.  So  she 
bi-oke  up  a  very  flourishing  and  well-appointed  settlement,  and  trans- 
ferred it.  to  Kieft's  domain,  the  tract  now  called  (Iravesend  being 
assigned  to  her.  A  strongly  fortified  house  marked  the  center  of 
the  new  plantation,  about  which  clustered  the  houses  of  friends  and 
dependents.  There  was  a  stockade  surrounding  these  dwellings,  and 
the  farm  lands  lav  outside.  Ladv  Moody  took  no  chances  on  the  In- 
dians, and  it  was  well  she  was 
so  prudent,  as  she  soon  had 
reason  to  find  out.  In  L642  a 
company  of  Anabaptists,  un- 
der the  leadership  of  Rev. 
Francis  Doughty,  received  a 
grant  or  lease  of  land  at  "  Mes- 
pat.'*  or  Maspeth.  bong  Island; 
after  the  Indians  had  wiped 
0U1  this  plantation,  some  dis- 
pute arising  betweet  the  min- 
ister and  his  followers  as  to 

the  proprietary  rights  to  Mes- 
pal.  Mr.  Doughty  and  others, 
iii   L645,  took  up  land  where 

t  he  Village  of  Flushing  is  now 
located.    Ami  finally,  in  (.643,  John  Throgmorton  and  thirty-live  Ana- 
baptist families  received  permission  to  settle  in  that  part  of  The 
Bronx  Borough  which  includes  Throgg's  Neck,  a  name  derived  from 
I  hat  of  t  he  leader  of  t  hose  refugees. 


IN  PORT. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


37 


As  sluill  appeal'  later,  Kiet't  was  not  liuicli  of  ;i  religious  man,  and 
it  may  be  his  indifference  to  religion  thai  made  him  so  toleranl  of  all 
sects.  For,  in  addition  to  the  above  instances,  which  may  be  set  to 
his  credit  or  discredit,  as  it  may  please  the  reader,  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  it  was  during  his  administration  that  notable  protection 
w  as  afforded  to  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  l";it  hers  Jogues  and  Bressani. 
The  story  of  Jogues's  heroism  and  sufferings  and  final  murder  by  the 
Mohawks  in  1646  is  a  familiar  one.  In  1643,  sadly  tortured  and  mu- 
tilated, he  was  rescued  and  ransomed  from  the  fierce  savages  at  Rens- 
selaerswyck,  near  Albany,  and  brought  down  to  Fort  Amsterdam. 
Director  Kiet't  treated  him  with  the  greatest  consideration,  gave  him 
money,  and  sent  hint  to  France  free  of  charge,  in  one  of  the  Com- 
pany's ships.  Father  Jogues  has  left  on  record  his  impressions  of  life 
on  Manhattan  Island.  It  is  from  him  Ave  learn  that  no  less  than 
eighteen  languages  conld  be  heard  in  the  colony;  and  he  was  aston- 
ished at  the  variety  of  creeds  represented  and  tolerated  there  on  equal 
terms.  Father  Bressani  was  ransomed  from  the  Iroquois  for  a  good 
round  sum,  just  as  he  was  about  to  be  burned  at  the  stake,  in  1644. 
He  too  was  sent  to  France,  via  Holland,  free  of  charge.  These  inci- 
dents are  certainly  among  the  pleasantest  to  record,  and  reflect  credit 
on  Kieft  and  the  Company  from  whatever  point  of  view  we  choose  to 
look  at  them. 

We  must  now  turn,  however,  to  the  darker  side  of  William  the 
Testy's  administration — the  story  of  the  long  and  cruel  Indian  wars. 
It  begins  with  a  tale  of  unprovoked  murder  and  its  revenge,  inevit- 
able according  to  the  savage  code.  Away  back  in  1626  three  servants 
of  Director  Minuit,  all  of  whom  are  said  to  have  been  negroes,  were 
at  work  on  the  edge  of  the  pond  called  the  "  Collect,"  in  later  times. 
It  was  located  at  the  bottom  of  that  depression  in  Centre  Street,  slop 
ing  down  from  Broome  Street  on  the  north  and  Reade  Street  on  the 
south,  the  Tombs  prison  until  lately  occupying  its  site.  While  en- 
gaged in  cut  ting  wood,  an  Indian  man  and  boy  appeared  on  t  he  scene, 
the  boy  being  the  man's  nephew.  They  were  carrying  a  lot  of  beaver 
skins  to  be  traded  for  trinkets  at  the  fort.  The  negroes,  tempted  by 
the  valuable  furs,  killed  the  adult  Indian,  but  the  buy  escaped.  He 
vowed  vengeance,  and  quietly  bided  his  time.  Fifteen  years  after,  an 
Indian  suddenly  entered  the  shop  of  Claes  Swits  (or  Smits),  a  wheel- 
wright, living  far  out.  near  Turtle  Bay,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  Forty-fifth 
Street  and  the  Fast  River,  attacked  the  occupant  with  a  tomahawk 
while  his  back  w  as  turned,  and  murdered  him  in  cold  blood.  The  as- 
sailant was  the  nephew*  of  the  Indian  killed  in  1626  and  belonged  to 
the  tribe  of  the  Weckquaesgecks.  The  tribe  having  been  summoned 
to  surrender  the  murderer,  refused  to  give  him  up. 

It  would  not  do  to  leave  so  bold  a  murder  unpunished,  for  the  effect 
of  this  would  be  to  multiply  such  events  indefinitely,  a  condition  fatal 
to  the  plantation  of  the  territory.    So  nothing  remained  but  to  de- 


38 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


(•hire  war  against  the  savage  foe.  For  this  importanl  step,  however, 
Kieft  was  not  prepared  to  take  the  responsibility  upon  himself  and 
the  council  so  peculiarly  constituted.  The  situation,  therefore,  actu- 
ally forced  him  to  make  a  concession  that  temporarily  converted  the 
colonial  oligarchy -he  had  fondly  planned  to  establish  into  the  freest 
kind  of  democratic  state.  All  the  heads  of  families  were  summoned 
to  meet  on  "Thursday.  Angust  L'!t,  1(141, " — a  date  worth  noting— 
"for  the  consideration  of  some  important  and  necessary  matters" 
pertaining  to  the  common  weal,  (hit  of  this  assembly  twelve  men 
were  chosen,  with  De  Vries  as  chairman,  who  should  be  allowed  to 
settle  the  question  of  the  expediency  of  making  war  on  the  Indians. 
We  hud  upon  the  list  of  names  those  of  Jan  Jansen  Damen,  who  later 
had  a  farm  running  from  Broadway  to  the  East  River,  just  north  of 
Wall  Street;  also  Joachim  Kuyter,  of  Zegendael  on  the  Harlem,  and 
Joris  (or  George)  Rapalye,  of  the  Wallabout,  or  Walloon  Bay.  By 
the  advice  of  De  Yries,  who  had  had  some  experience  in  Indian  war- 
fare, and  knew  both  how  to  intimidate  and  to  pacify  Indians,  the 
committee  of  twelve  recommended  that  efforts  should  be  further 
made  to  induce  the  Weckqunesgecks  to  one  up  the  offender.  But  the 
committee  went  a  little  beyond  the  purpose  of  their  appointment,  for 
they  thought  that  this  was  too  good  a  chance  to  let  go  for  bringing 
the  arbitrary  Kieft  to  terms  in  the  matter  of  popular  rights.  They 
demanded  an  increase  in  the  council  from  one  to  five  members,  the 
foui-  additional  ones  to  be  selected  from  the  twelve1.  Kieft  reluc- 
tantly yielded,  granting  the  council  thus  enlarged  judiciary  powers, 
and  only  occasionally  a  voice  in  public  affairs  generally.  Protection 
too  gained  its  first  foothold  on  Manhattan  Island,  New  Englanders 
being  forbidden  to  sell  cows  and  goats  in  New  Netherland.  Thus 
Walter  Van  Twiller  could  not  be  underbid  in  his  sales  of  these  useful 
chattels,  and  the  prevention  of  their  increase  by  importation  would 
not  be  lessening  his  terms  for  hiring  them  out. 

In  March,  1042,  the  Wockquaosp;ecks,  having  still  failed  to  surren- 
der the  murderer  of  Smits,  Avar  was  declared.  A  force  of  eighty  men 
under  one  Ensign  Van  Dyck,  marched  against  their  villages  in  West- 
chester County,  with  orders  to  destroy  by  fire  and  by  sword.  But 
somehow  the  army  lost  its  way  in  the  woods  and  the  darkness,  and 
failed  to  reach  the  Indians.  Nevertheless,  the  demonstration  had  the 
effect  of  a  very  wholesome  fright.  A  conference  was  held  at  Bronck's 
house  and  peace  effected  mi  the  promise  that  the  murderer  would  be 
surrendered.  Although  the  promise  was  not  kept,  yet  this  peace  con- 
cluded t  he  first  episode  of  the  war. 

Isolated  murders  kepi  on  occuring  at  various  points  in  the  vicinity 
of  Manhattan  Island,  exasperating  the  not  too  placid  temper  of  Will- 
iam the  Testy.  It  must  have  been  on  this  account  that  he  was  pro- 
voked into  an  act  of  atrocity  <pnte  worthy  of  his  savage  neighbors 
themselves.   The  Indians  in  the  territory  of  Greater  New  York  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK 


39 


in  New  Jersey  belonged  to  the  general  family  of  the  Algonquins. 
During  a  raid  of  the  Indians  of  the  "  Five  Nations  "  of  the  Croquois 
family,  carrying  their  ever-victorious  amis  down  toward  the  month 
of  the  Hudson,  a  number  of  Algonquin  tribes  took  refuge  among  the 
Dutch  settlers.  One  party  tied  to  Do  Vries's  plantation  on  Staten 
Island;  a  second  encamped  on  Planck's  farm  at  Paulus  Hook,  oppo- 
site .Manhattan,  in  New  Jersey;  and  a  third  crossed  the  North  River, 
not  stopping  till  they  had  quite  traversed  the  island,  and  huddled  to- 
gef  her  in  terror  among  the  woods  on  ( 'orlaer's  I  look,  jutting  into  t  he 
East  River  opposite  the  Wallabout.  Kiefi  was  informed  of  the  incur- 
sion of  these  Indians.  II  is  possible  he  may  hsfve  supposed  their  pur- 
pose was  hostile.    At  any  rate,  he  gave  orders  to  attack  the  camps 


PALISADES  ALONG  WALL  STREET. 


at  Paulus  Hook  and  at  ('orlaer's  Hook.  On  the  night  of  February  27, 
1643,  eighty  men,  women,  and  children  were  ruthlessly  .lest roved  on 
the  Jersey  shore,  and  on  that  of  the  2Sth  a  similar  outrage  caused 
the  destruction  of  forty  men,  women,  and  infants  at  ('orlaer's  ETook. 
These  unpardonable  acts  could  only  have  one  result.  They  kindled 
the  flames  of  war  and  vengeance  among  all  the  surrounding  tribes 
in  Jersey,  in  Westchester  County,  on  Staten  Island,  on  Long  Island. 
Kuyter's  farm  and  buildings  were  destroyed  on  the  Harlem.  Bronck 
was  probably  murdered  then.  Anne  Hutchinson's  settlement  was 
raided,  the  good  woman  herself  killed,  and  her  little  eight-year-old 
daughter  captured.  Throgmorton  and  his  friends  suffered  great  loss 
of  lives  and  goods.  Mr.  Doughty's  plantation  at  Maspeth  was  entirely 
swept  away,  and  only  the  excellent  precautions  taken  by  Lady  Moody 
at  Gravesend  enabled  her  to  repel  successfully  three  tierce  attacks  by 
Indian  warriors.    Efforts  to  restore  peace  were  repeatedly  made  by 


40 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  now  thoroughly  frightened  Kieft,  but  mostly  in  vain.  A  congress 
of  sachems  met  at  Rockaway  at  one  time,  and  the  fearless  De  Vries, 
who  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  Indians,  went,  out  to  represenl 
t  he  direct  or.  While  quiet  was  thus  restored  at  one  point,  hostilities 
would  break  out  again  at  another.  An  expedition  was  sent  'o  Stati  n 
Island  under  Ensign  Van  Dyck,  and  one  to  Westchester  under  Cap 
tain  John  Underbill.  They  did  good  work  a1  fighting  the  Indians, 
and  inspired  them  with  a  wholesome  fear.  But  peace  was  not  finally 
established  on  a  firm  basis  until  August,  1  <»4.~>.  On  the  25th  of  that 
month  a  solemn  assembly  of  citizens  and  Indian  chiefs  met  within 
the  walls  of  Fort  Amsterdam  and  signed  a  treaty.  The  terms  were 
that  all  cases  of  injury  to  person  or  property  on  ei1  her  side  were  to  be 
laid  before  the  respective  authorities.  No  armed  Indian  was  to  come 
w  ithin  the  line  of  the  settlement ;  no  colonist  was  to  visit  the  Indian 
villages  without  a  native  to  escort  him.  In  celebration  of  the  peace, 
and  in  recognition  of  an  overruling  Providence  who  had  thus  caused 
t  he  reign  of  terror  to  come  to  a  happy  end,  Director  Kieft  proclaimed 
a.  day  of  thanksgiving.  On  September  G,  1 0 4 r> ,  it  was  recommended 
that  "in  all  places  where  there  are  any  English  or  Dutch  (hutches, 
God  Almighty  shall  be  thanked  and  praised." 

In  the  midst  of  the  stress  of  the  Indian  wars  Kiefl  had  been  com- 
pelled more  than  once  to  resort  to  the  people  of  the  colony  for  advice 
and  support.  The  "  twelve  men  "  having  been  soon  sent  about  their 
business,  after  securing  the  concessions  they  demanded,  a  new  repre- 
sentative body  had  to  be  elected.  This  consisted  of  eighl  men.  "  The 
good  people  of  t  he  Twelve,''  and  "  t  he  good  people  of  the  Eight  "  were 
municipal  institutions  of  Holland  dating  bach  to  the  14th  century; 
and  tints  in  these  bodies  called  into  existence  by  the  emergencies  of 
the  Indian  war,  we  recognize  the  first  traces  of  municipal  govern- 
ment in  Greater  New  York.  The  eighl  men  continued  to  watch  the 
interests  of  the  people  after  the  war  was  over.  They  protested 
against  excessive  duties  levied  by  Kieft  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the 
war,  but  he  treated  the  representatives  of  the  commonalty  with  dis- 
dain. Then  the  eight  men,  under  the  leadership  of  I'atroon  Melyn. 
of  Staten  Island,  drew  up  a  formal  complaint  against  Kieft's  arbi- 
i  rary  and  oppressive  measures,  reciting  also  that  his  cruelly  had  pro- 
voked the  disastrous  Indian  troubles,  and  charging  that  by  his  con- 
nivance they  were  prolonged.  This  complaint  was  sent  to  the  West 
India  Company,  and  produced  a  profound  effect.  Indeed,  so  deeply 
discouraged  was  the  Company  by  the  stale  of  affairs  in  New  Nether- 
land  that  il  was  seriously  debated  whether  it  were  not  better  to  trans- 
port the  colonists  in  a  body  back  to  the  Fatherland,  and  abandon  the 
unprofitable  enterprise  altogether. 

The  year  1G42  was  made  memorable  by  the  erection  of  two  impor- 
tant buildings.  At  that  time  trade  with  the  neighboring  colonies, 
both  of  the  south  and  east,  seems  to  have  been  quite  brisk.  Fre 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER   NEW  YORK. 


11 


quontly  ships  came  into  the  harbor  carrying  merchants  who  needed 
to  be  politely  entreated  in  order  to  secure  business  for  the  colony. 
They  were  usually  entertained  at  the  director's  house.  Bu1  this  be- 
ginning to  prove  something  of  a  burden,  Kieft  determined  to  erect  a 
building  such  as  graced  every  important  town  of  Holland — a  Stadl 
Herberg,  or  city  tavern.  That  which  had  served  Amsterdam  in  this 
way  stood  upon  the  Harlemmer  Street,  and  had  been  assigned  to  the 
use  of  the  West  India  Company  for  offices  and  directors'  rooms.  A 
goodly  building  was  accordingly  erected  at  the  head  of  what  is  now 
Coenties  Slip.  It  was  built  of  stone  or  brick,  two  or  three  stories  in 
height,  with  a  high  sloping  roof,  in  which  were  placed  two  or  three 
tiers  of  dormer  windows.  The  site  is 
marked  to-day  by  a  bronze  tablet  in 
the  wall  of  the  building  occupying  it 
now.  It  is  of  special  interest,  as  it  be- 
came the  town  hall  in  the  days  both  of 
Dutch  and  English  municipal  govern- 
ment. 

Tn  the  same  year  was  built  the 
"  church  in  the  fort."  One  day  Do 
Vries  remarked  to  the  Director  that  it 
was  a  shame  the  people  at  Fort  Am- 
sterdam should  worship  in  a  church 
building  "  as  mean  as  a  barn,"  while 
the  New  England  villages  all  pos- 
sessed handsome  buildings.  Kieft 
asked  how  much  the  captain  would  be 
willing  to  subscribe  toward  a  proper 
edifice.  De  Vries  at  once  promised  to 
pay  100  florins,  if  Kieft  would  give  as 
much.  Kieft  agreed  to  the  bargain, 
and  then  resorted  to  a  curious  expedient  to  get  the  remaining  funds 
that  were  needed.  A  Avedding  was  soon  to  take  place.  Sarah,  the 
daughter  of  Anneke  Jans,  was  to  be  married  to  Hans  Kierstede,  the 
surgeon  or  physician  of  the  post.  Anneke  Jans  was  the  widow  of 
lioelof  Jans,  to  whom  had  been  granted,  in  1030,  the  Company's  farm 
No.  1,  or  part  of  it,  a  tract  of  sixty-two  acres  running  north  of  Warren 
Street,  now  owned  by  Trinity  Church.  In  1038  she  had  married  the 
Rev.  Everardus  Bogardus,  and  thus  the  wealth  and  social  position 
of  the  parties  made  the  wedding  a  prominent  one.  It  would  bring  to- 
gether all  the  notable  people  of  the  colony,  and  Director  Kieft  formed 
a  shrewd  plan  for  getting  subscriptions  for  his  church.  When  the 
potations  had  been  indulged  in  more  than  once,  and  the  company 
was  in  a  mellow  mood,  Kieft  suddenly  came  forward  with  his  propo- 
sition and  asked  for  subscriptions  on  the  spot,  exhibiting  his  own 
and  De  Vries's,  heading  the  list.    Some  of  the  subscribers  looked 


STUYVESANT  PEAR  TREE. 


42 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATKR  SEW  YORK. 


rather  dubiously  at  the  amounts  opposite  their  names  when  t  Ik-  fumes 
of  the  liquor  had  subsided,  but  Kieft  held  every  one  strictly  to  liis 
word.  A  stone  church  at  a  cost  of  2,500  guilders  ($1,000)  was  put  up 
within  the  quadrangle  of  the  fort,  to  the  south  of  the  governor's 
house,  and  against  "the  cast  wall,  an  inscription  over  the  fiont  door 
informing  the  reader  thai  Director  Kieft  had  caused  it  to  be  built  for 
t  he  congregation. 

The  proximity  of  the  church  to  his  residence  did  not  prevent  subse- 
quent hostilities  between  Kieft  and  the  pastor.  Bogardus  took  to 
denouncing  the  present  director  as  he  had  the  former  one.  Ilis  tem- 
per was  none  of  the  best,  and  Kieft  accused  him  of  being  too  fond  of 
wine.  The  quarrel  grew  from  bad  to  worse.  Kieft  would  order  the 
drums  to  be  beaten  during  the  services,  or  cannons  to  be  discharged 
by  the  soldiers.  TTe  encouraged  the  soldiers  to  play  noisy  games  in 
the  quadrangle,  and  otherwise  to  annoy  and  insult  the  church  people. 
Kieft  accused  Bogardus  before  the  ciassis  of  Amsterdam  of  drunken- 
ness and  improper  conduct,  and  in  1638  the  Ciassis  seriously  thought 
of  recalling  him.  Tt  was  about  this  time  Domine  Michaelius  was  re- 
quested to  again  assume  the  duties  of  pastor  at  Fort  Amsterdam. 
But  nothing  came  of  the  matter  then.  Finally,  when  the  complaints 
against  Kieft  compelled  the  Company  to  remove  him,  Bogardus  was 
also  summoned  to  Amsterdam  to  answer  the  charges  against  him. 

Toward  the  close  of  Kieft's  term  the  population  in  and  about  Man- 
hattan Island  had  grown  to  about  one  thousand  souls.  Tin1  houses 
were  as  yet  mostly  of  very  primitive  construction;  generally  of  wood, 
and,  what  seems  strange,  with  wooden  chimneys.  These  and  the 
roofs  of  reed  or  straw,  must  have  made  fires  frequent  and  disastrous. 
There  was  as  yet  not  much  regularity  about  the  disposition  of  the 
houses  into  streets;  the  fort  formed  the  nucleus,  and  rows  of  houses 
in  its  vicinity  or  along  the  shores  would  naturally  prove  the  begin- 
ning of  the  streets  we  discover  there  later,  some  of  which  are  yet 
easily  identified.  Tn  Kieft's  time  several  small  plots  for  residences, 
fifty  feet  or  more  in  width,  were  sold  below  Wall  Street.  A  line  of 
planks  or  pickets  already  indicated  the  location  of  the  future  Wall 
Street.  There  was  a  ferry  to  Long  Tsland  and  a  road  to  it  from  the 
fort.  On  the  ma])  of  1042  a  road  leads  into  the  country  along  the 
line  of  Broadway,  and  a  by-road  runs  down  to  the  Last  "River  from 
the  other  about  where  Maiden  Lane  is  now.  As  we  have  seen,  ere 
Kieft  was  recalled,  nearly  all  the  territory  covered  now  by  Greater 
New  York  had  begun  to  be  settled. 

Kieft  remained  on  Manhattan  Tsland  for  a  short  time  after  the  ar- 
rival of  his  successor.  This  was  in  order  to  statu!  trial  in  a  case 
brought  against  him  by  Patroon  Molvn.  of  Slaten  Tsland.  and  Joachim 
Kuyter.  of  Zegendael  on  the  TTarlem.  both  members  of  the  "Light 
Men."  The  new  Director  sentenced  to  severe  penalties  the  accusers 
instead  of  the  accused,  whereupon  they  appealed  t<>  the  authorities  in 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK.  43 

Holland.  The  ex-Director,  his  accusers  Melyn  and  Kuyter,  and 
Domine  Bogardus  all  took  passage  in  the  Princess,  sailing  on  August 
10, 1(>47.  It  is  said  the  Princess  had  a  large  quantity  of  iron  pyrites  on 
board,  which  Kieft  imagined  was  gold,  and  thus  proved,  indeed,  to  he 
the  Tool's  gold  it 
is  sometimes 
styled.  The  Prin- 
ce s  s  lost  her 
bearings  in  a 
foil;,  ran  upon 
the  rocks  on  the 
coast  of  \Vales, 
and  Kieft,  Bo- 
g  a  r  d  u  s,  a  n  d 
eighty  of  their 
fellow  passen- 
ii  e  r  s  perished. 
Melyn  and  Kuy- 
ter were  saved, 
and  Kuyter  even 
recovered  the 

box  containing  the  papers  in  their  case  against  Kieft.  Kieft 's  last 
words  were  an  acknowldgement  of  his  wrong-doing  toward  his  ac- 
cusers, and  a  request  to  be  forgiven ;  so  that  nothing  in  his  lib  became 
him  so  well  as  his  leaving  of  it. 

The  same  good  ship  that  met  with  so  sad  a  fate,  accompanied  by 
three  others,  had  brought  to  Manhattan  colony  Kieft 's  successor,  the 
last  of  the  Directors-General  who  kept  aloft  the  flag  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
public over  Fort  Amsterdam.  How  familiar  is  the  figure  of  Pete 
Stuyvesant,  compared  with  those  of  his  predecessors!  Of  Minuit's 
incumbency  Ave  were  not  even  sure  until  about  fifty  years  ago.  Wal- 
ter Van  Twiller,  rotund  and  roystering,  William  Kieft,  spare  and 
testy,  short  of  body  as  of  temper,  live  thus  only  in  our  imaginations, 
and  we  know  of  them  only  from  books.  But  Stuyvesant  still  seems  a 
living  presence  in  our  city.  His  portrait  adorns  private  homes  and 
halls  of  learning;  his  effigy,  wooden  leg  and  all,  figures  here  and 
there  upon  our  streets.  Every  one  has  trod  the  thoroughfare  leading 
to  his  farm  or  Bouwery,  still  bearing  that  name  to  indicate  the  con- 
nection. And  there  are  not  a  few  who  have  gazed  upon  the  pear  tree 
planted  by  his  own  hands,  which  stood  until  thirty  years  ago  upon  the 
corner  of  Third  Avenue  and  Thirteenth  Street,  nis  fine,  strong,  reso- 
lute face,  and  especiallv  his  wooden  leg,  adorned  with  silver  bands, 
stand  vividly  before  our  minds  the  instant  his  name  is  mentioned. 
He  does  not,  therefore,  seem  nearly  so  distant  from  our  own  day  as 
the  men  who  preceded  him;  he  belongs  to  our  city  by  a  closer  pro- 
prietory right  than  any  of  the  others. 


CANAL  IN  BROAD  STREET. 


44 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


We  are  told  it  was  ;t  bright  warm  day  in  .May,  the  UTt  1 1  of  the 
month,  L647,  exactly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  as  we  write 
these  words,  when  Director  Stuyvesanl  and  his  party  landed  on  .Man- 
hat  tan  Island.  The  people  had  become  so  tired  of  Kieft  that  they 
were  prepared  to  welcome  any  one  who  replaced  him  with  enthusi- 
asm. But  apart  from  this,  the  man  who  towered  in  stature  and  dig- 
nity above  the  retiring  official  beside  him  was  of  a  far  superior  stamp 
in  every  way.  He  was  of  a  good  family  in  Holland,  the  son  of  a 
clergyman.  He  had  attained  honorable  distinction  in  military  life, 
having  lost  a  leii  in  the  service  of  the  Republic.  He  had  held  colonial 
office  before,  having  been  governor  of  Curacao  and  other  islands  of 
the  Dutch  West  Indies.  His  private  character  was  above  reproach, 
his  sense  of  honor  of  t  he  highest,  his  honesty  of  purpose  and  integrity 
in  the  administration  of  affairs  not  to  be  doubted  for  a  moment.  He 
might  be  despotic  in  temperament  and  disdainful  of  popular  rights, 
bu1  in  the  midst  of  all  the  troubles  he  encountered  not  a  word  could 
be  said  reflecting  upon  his  persona]  character  or  official  conduct. 

A  circumstance  deserving  of  not  ice  is  t  hat  t  he  I  >irector-<  General  w  as 
accompanied  by  his  wife.  We  read  of  no  .Mrs.  Minuit,  or  .Mrs.  Van 
Twiller,  or  .Mrs.  Kieft;  and  if  they  had  been  it  seems  as  if  history 
would  have  had  some  record  of  them.  But  it  is  pleasant  to  observe 
that  Stuyvesanl  brought  a  lady  into  the  governor's  house.  Indeed 
he  brought  more  than  one.  His  sister  had  married  Mrs.  Stuyvesant's 
brother,  Samuel  Bayard,  who  had  died.  And  .Mrs.  Bayard,  with  her 
three  sons,  Peter,  Balthazar,  and  Nicholas,  destined  to  play  important 
parts  in  the  subsequent  history  of  the  city,  sometimes  creditable, 
sometimes  not,  had  accompanied  her  brother  and  sister-in-law  to  seek 
a  home  with  them  in  wild  America.  These  were  ladies  of  refinement 
and  some  education,  and  their  arrival  augured  well  for  an  elevation 
of  the  tone  of  society  at  Port  Amsterdam,  of  which  it  was  doubtless 
somewhat  in  need. 

As  Stuyvesanl  was  to  retain  his  command  over  Curacao  and  the 
West  Indies,  t  he  office  of  Vice  I  h'rector  had  been  created.  The  duties 
of  that  position  were  intrusted  to  the  able  and  upright  bnbbertus 
Van  Dincklagen,  w  ho  had  served  the  people  of  the  colony  by  oppos- 
ing Van  Twiller  and  causing  his  removal.  He  had  been  quite  as  use- 
ful in  exposing  the  injurious  nature  of  Kieft *s  administration,  and 
had  therefore  been  largely  instrumental  in  ridding  the  people  of  him 
also.  He  was  to  manifest  equal  independence,  and  an  intelligent  re- 
gard for  popular  rights,  under  the  arbitrary  government  of  his  pres- 
ent chief. 

The  need  of  money  has  always  forced  the  tyrant's  hand  to  yield  con- 
cessions to  popular  liberty.  And  Stuyvesanl  proved  no  exception  to 
i  he  rule.  I  le  began  on  t  he  very  day  of  his  arrival  and  reception  t<>  in- 
timate plainly  by  words  in  w  hat  spirit  he  expected  to  govern.  Before 
i  he  tii  si  i  luce  mont  hs  w  ere  over,  he  gave  evidences  by  action  of  his  at  - 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


45 


bitrary  notions.  Melyn  and  Kuyter,  who  had  brought  charges  against 
ex-Director  Kieft,  were  denounced  as  traitors.  Stuyvesant  chose  to 
declare  that  it  was  treason  and  rebellion  to  bring  an  accusation 
against  a  magistrate,  no  matter  how  good  the  grounds  for  it.  Hence 
these  gentlemen  found  the  tables  effectually  turned,  and  instead  of 
securing  the  conviction 
sentenced  to  banish- 
ment and  heavy  fines. 
The  rights  or  wishes  of 
the  people  stood  bnt  a 
poor  chance  of  recogni- 
tion on  the  part  of  a 
r  n  1  e  r  who  cherished 
sentiments  of  this  sort, 
and  acted  upon  them  so 
vigorously.  And  yet  be- 
f  O  r  e  another  three 
months  were  gone,  we 
find  an  assembly  of 
"Mne  Men,"  represent- 
ing the  settlements  on 
Manhattan  and  Long  Is-J 
lands,  in  session,  audi 
solicited  by  Stuyvesant  for  assistance  in  defraying  the  expenses  of  re- 
pairing the  fort.  He  had  found  it  impossible  to  get  funds  otherwise 
than  by  calling  this  assembly,  so  thoroughly  was  the  principle 
of  taxation  only  by  representation  ingrained  into  the  nature  of 
Dutch  Republicans.  But,  although  the  Director  had  been  com- 
pelled to  call  the  "Nine  Men"  into  existence,  it  can  easily  b" 
understood  that  he  did  not  cordially  approve  of  the  institution. 
Neither  could  harmony  be  expected  in  the  dealings  between  tin- 
two.  Stuyvesant  disregarded  their  demands,  and  set  aside  their 
recommendations,  and  they  on  their  part  kept  on  with  more  ur- 
gent demands  and  stronger  remonstrances,  in  the  midst  of  the 
turmoil  the  hands  of  the  enemy  were  signally  strengthened  by  the 
return  of  Melyn  and  Kuyter,  their  sentence  completely  reversed  by 
the  authorities  at  home,  and  bearing  in  triumph  a  summons  upon 
Stuyvesant  to  appear  in  Holland  to  answer  grave  charges  Of  miscon- 
duct in  their  trial.  They  contrived  to  have  this  summons  rend  in 
church,  where  it  had  the  effect  of  a  thunderbolt  out  of  a  clear  sky 
upon  the  unsuspecting  Governor.  The  Nine  Men  now  drew  up  a  me- 
morial or  remonstrance,  presumably  from  the  pen  of  Adriaen  Van  der 
Dom  k,  of  Yonkers;  and  delegated  the  latter  with  two  others  to  go  to 
Holland  to  present  the  remonstrance  in  person.  Stuyvesant,  on  his 
part,  showed  his  fighting  mettle.  He  caused  Van  der  Donck's  arrest 
without  a  moment's  notice,  seized  his  papers,  and  upon  the  testimony 


» 


46 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


derived  therefrom  proceeded  to  condemn  him.  Vice-Director  Van 
Dincklagen  protested  against  this  despotic  measure,  but  it  was  of  no 
avail.  Another  memorial  was  drawn  up,  and  Van  der  Donck  sent 
with  that  to  Holland.  It  gave  an  elaborate  account  of  conditions  in' 
America,  and  a  succinct  history  of  colonial  affairs  up  to  dale,  L650, 
more  or  less  partial,  as  may  be  expected.  Still,  the  States-General 
learned  enough  to  make  tip  their  minds  that  some  changes  in  admin- 
istration should  be  made.  They  determined  to  separate  the  functions 
of  provincial  and  local  government.  It  would  be  well  enough  to  let 
Stuyvesant  rule  the  province,  but  it  seemed  best  to  give  the  govern- 
ment of  the  people  in  his  immediate  vicinity  more  into  their 
own  hands.  This  could  be  effected  in  no  better  wav  than  by  making 
a  city  of  Fort  Amsterdam.  In  the  civil  policy  of  the  Dutch  Republic 
the  city  was  the  seat  and  source  of  all  political  authority.  The  Pro- 
vincial States  or  legislature  of  each  province  was  the  creature  of  the 
town  councils,  whose  delegates  composed  its  members.  In  turn,  the 
States-General  or  Congress  of  the  Republic  was  the  creature  of  the 
several  Provincial  States.  No  measure  of  any  importance  could  be 
passed  upon  in  the  States-General  without  first  having  been  referred 
back  to  the  Provincial  States,  and  by  these  to  the  several  town  govern- 
ments for  express  instructions. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  there  was  great  significance  in  the 
purpose  to  bestow  municipal  being  upon  the  community  clustering 
about  Fort  Amsterdam.  The  form  adopted  was  that  common  among 
the  Dutch  towns,  the  officers  consisting  of  two  burgomasters,  five 
schepens,  and  a  schout.  The  burgomaster  of  a  Dutch  city  to-day  is 
exactly  equivalent  to  a  mayor,  and  only  one  functionary  bears  the 
name.  Hut  at  the  time  of  the  Dutch  Republic  there  were  never  less 
than  two.  This  twofold  headship  was  the  relic  of  an  ancient  cus- 
tom, dating  from  the  time  of  the  counts  of  Holland,  when  one  burgo- 
master represented  the  feudal  lord,  and  watched  over  his  interests, 
and  the  other  was  the  people's  representative,  and  guarded  their  lib- 
erties or  privileges.  The  schepens  (from  the  Latin  ScaMni)  possessed 
mainly  judicial  functions,  sitting  as  a  court,  the  legislative  depart- 
ment belonging  rather  to  the  burgomasters,  of  whom  there  were  often 
four  or  more  in  large  cities.  The  schout,  somewhat  equivalent  to  the 
English  sheriff,  was  the  executive  officer,  at  this  time  subordinate  to 
the  others,  but  in  earlier  periods  the  supreme  functionary,  ruling  in 
the  place  of  the  count.  In  the  beginning  these  municipal  officers  were 
chosen  by  the  people,  more  or  less  directly  in  conjunction  with  the 
feudal  lord.  Later  the  trade  guilds  became  the  electors,  but  finally 
the  councils  became  self-perpetuating  close  corporations;  or  at  best 
1 1  lectors  were  confined  only  to  the  body  of  ex-officers,  called  the 

"  Wisdom  "  or  "  Prudence  "  or  "  Riches,"  or  simply  t  he  <  Hd  <  Souncil, 
Or  ex-Council.    Put  the  corporation  as  such,  and  however  elected  or 

const  it  u  ted.  was  a  little  sovereiarntv  bv  it  self,  treating  with  other  like 


HISTORY  OF    THE  CiRKATKR   X  !  •  YY  YORK. 


47 


sovereigns  in  the  province  or  in  t  he  Republic  by  means  of  plenipoten- 
tiaries in  the  provincial  or  general  assemblies. 

Thus  Fort  Amsterdam  now  became  New  Amsterdam,  one  of  the 
sovereign  cities  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  It  is  somewhat  hard  to  com- 
prehend, however,  since  tins  arrangement  was  intended  to  neutralize 
Stnyvesant's  arbitrary  assumptions  of  power,  why  the  Company  or 
the  States-General  should  have  allowed  him  to  make  all  the  appoint- 
ments, giving  the  people  themselves  no  choice  in  the  matter.  The 
Director  appointed  as  the  first  burgomasters  Arendi  van  Hattem  and 
Martin  Krigier;  as  schepens,  Paulus  Van  der  Grist,  Maximilian  van 
GheeL  Allard  Anthony.  Peter  van  Couwenhoven,  and  William  Beek- 
nmn.   The  Company  had  prepared  a  very  unkind  cut  for  the  Director 


by  ordering  him  to  appoint  Joachim  Kuyter  as  sellout.  But  before 
the  time  came  for  carrying  the  new  state  of  things  into  effect,  Kuyter 
had  been  murdered  by  an  Indian,  and  Stuyvesant  appointed  his 
friend  and  supporter.  Secretary  Van  Tienhoven,  to  the  office.  Jacob 
Kip  became  Town  Secretary.  By  proclamation  of  the  Director  the  new 
order  of  things  went  iuto  effect  on  February  2, 1653.  The  old  city  tav- 
ern, built  eleveu  years  before,  was  remodeled  and  made  the  Stadt 
Huys,  or  Town  Hall.  The  council  met  ou  Mondays  from  niue  to  noon, 
but  sometimes,  under  press  of  business,  would  devote  a  few  hours  of 
the  afternoon  to  it.  Later,  in  consideration  of  the  fact  that  most  of 
the  officers  were  tradespeople  whose  time  cost  money,  burgomasters 
were  assigned  a  stipend  of  350  guilders  ($140)  per  annum,  and  the 
schepens  one  of  250  guilders  ($100).  The  people  had  now  their  own 
rulers,  distinct  from  the  provincial  government,  but  frictions  were 
nevertheless  continually  occurring  between  the  citizens  and  the  Di- 


48 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


lector  regarding  the  election  or  appointment  of  this  or  thai  officer,  or 
(»i  her  complex  questions  of  authority. 

An  expedient  naturally  suggested  itself  to  Stuyvesant  by  the  fad 
that  New  Amsterdam  was  now  a  city.  In  Dutch  cities  of  the  olden 
time,  when  the  people  still  had  a  voice  in  electing  their  magistrates, 
they  were  restricted  in  the  way  of  candidates  to  office  to  those  who 
paid  a  certain  amount  of  taxes,  or  owned  a  certain  amount  of  prop- 
erty. Stuyvesant  proposed  now  to  divide  the  population  of  New  Am- 
sterdam into  two  classes.  Those  who  were  willing  to  pay  titty  llorins 
($20)  would  be  enrolled  as  greater  burghers;  all  those  who  w  ould  pay 
IT)  tiorins  ($10)  were  to  receive  the  privileges  of  small  burghers.  On 
a  list  of  L657  appear  twenty  great  burghers  and  two  hundred  and 
four  small  burghers.  By  this  arrangement  Stuyvesanl  raised  a  good 
round  sum  for  the  repairs  on  the  fort.  But  the  small  number  who 
applied  for  greater  burgher  rights  made  it  impossible  to  confine  to 
their  ranks  alone  the  choosing  of  magistrates  for  the  city. 

As  if  by  the  irony  of  fate,  the  sway  of  the  most  despotic  of  colonial 
governors  saw  the  establishment  of  an  assembly  of  the  most  demo- 
cratic character.  On  November  '2(j,  1653,  there  gathered  in  the 
City  Hall  at  the  head  of  Coenties  (Slip,  nineteen  men  representing 
t  lie  city  and  eight  village  communities,  all  situated  within  the  bounds 
of  Greater  New  York.  Its  purpose  ostensibly  was  to  concoct  meas- 
ures of  defense  against  the  Indians;  but  other  matters  of  public  iu- 
lerest  were  not  excluded  from  their  deliberations.  Stuyvesant  was  in- 
vited to  partake  of  a  parting  banquet;  but  he  refused  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  them.  Yet  so  strong  was  the  clamor  of  the  people 
for  the  reassembling  of  this  body  that,  iu  order  to  avoid  the  odium 
of  having  it  meet  in  spite  of  him,  he  was  lain  to  call  its  next  meeting 
himself,  thus  giving  it  legal  sanction.  It  met  in  the  City  Hall  on  1  >e- 
cember  10,  L653.  The  two  burgomasters  and  Schepen  Van  tier  (irist 
represented  New  Amsterdam;  there  were  three  delegates  from 
Breuckelen,  two  from  Flushing,  two  from  Newtown,  two  from  Hemp- 
stead, three  from  Ameisfoort  (Flatlands),  two  from  Midwout  (Flat- 
bush),  and  two  from  (iravosend.  Perhaps  it  was  a  little  ungracious, 
after  forcing  Stuyvesanl  into  calling  it  together,  to  make  its  main 
business  the  preparation  of  a  paper  memoralizing  the  States-General 
complaining  of  the  unbearable  tyranny  of  the  Director.  Hut  what- 
ever its  proceedings,  we  agree  with  bossing  in  viewing  this  assembly 
as  of  the  greatest  interest  as  "  the  first  real  representative  assembly 
in  the  great  State  of  New  York."  To  us  of  Greater  New  fork  it  is 
still  more  significant  as  unconsciously  foreshadowing  the  municipal 
assembly  which  is  to  gather  its  members  from  the  very  boroughs  (and 
one  or  two  more}  which  sent  their  delegates  to  beard  the  lion  in  his 
den  in  I  653. 

Events  of  a  general  nature  transpiring  outside  the  bounds  of  the 
city  ha\e  no  claim  to  our  particular  attention.  The  Director  was  more 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


49 


successful  iu  coping  with  these  than  in  repressing  the  republican  iu- 
slincts  of  his  own  people.  The  English  kepi  up  their  game  of  harass- 
ing New  Netherland,  and  claiming  title  to  part,  or  all  of  it.  But 
Stuyvesant,  by  calm  remonstrance  and  amicable  conference,  suc- 
ceeded in  keeping  them  at  anus'  length.  A  dispute  as  to  boundary 
lines  was  settled  by  arbitration,  the  arbitrators  on  the  Dutch  side 
being  two  English  citizens  of  New  Amsterdam,  whose  appointment 
occasioned  bitter  complaint  against  the  Director.  When  the 
Swedes  in  the  Delaware  section  of  New  Netherland  became  too  ag- 
gressive, an  expedition  of  seven  armed  vessels  quickly  averted  all  con- 
troversy, the  Swedish  settlers  retiring  gracefully  before  the  superior 
force.  Stuyvesant  had  some  difficulties  with  the  authorities  at  Fort 
Orange  or  Albany,  and  he  made  a  personal  visit  to  that  region.  The 
English  on  Long  Island  too  continued  to  annoy  Stuyvesant,  as  they 
had  done  Kieft. 
Previous  to  1640 
a  number  of  Yan- 
kees from  New 
Engl  a  n  d  had 
crossed  t  h  e 
Sound  and  pur- 
c  h  a  s  e  d  lands 
from  the  Indians 
at  the  eastern  ex- 
tremity of  the 
island.  By  every 
right  that  discov- 
ery could  give, 
the  whole  island 
was  the  property 
of  the  Dutch.  Bui 
the  Long  Island 
settlers  had  little 
regard  for  that  right;  they  kept  pressing  westward,  and  threatening 
to  invade  the  Dutch  villages,  and  the  English  patents  granted  by  the 
Dutch.  Both  Kieft  and  Stuyvesant  used  diplomatic  arts  and  military 
demonstrations  to  arrest  their  progress.  But  they  could  not  be  driven 
off  the  island,  and  retained  their  positions  at  Southampton  and 
Southold,  a  constant  threat  to  the  peace  of  the  island,  and  a  potent 
instrument  in  the  final  dislodgment  of  Dutch  power. 

There  is  also  a  brief  story  of  Indian  massacre  and  war  during  the 
term  of  Stuyvesant.  The  savages  and  colonists  in  the  main  got  along 
pretty  well.  But  it  is  no  wonder  that  once  in  a  while  a  settler  would 
lose  patience  and  commit  an  act  likely  to  excite  such  inflammable 
neighbors.  Vet  the  act  that  brought  the  final  catastrophe  can  hardly 
be  justified.   Hendrick  Van  Dyck,  Fiscal  to  Stuyvesant 's  council,  had 


WHITE  HALL,     STUVVESANT's  TOWN  HOUSE. 


50 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


been  retired  to  private  life  not  long  after  the  opening  of  the  new  ad- 
ministration. Even  while  (he  squadron  conveying  the  Director  was 
still  on  I  lie  high  seas  Stuyvesanl  had  taken  sonic  dislike  to  him,  and 
publicly  insulted  him.  lie  was  now  interested  in  cultivating  a  peach 
orchard,  and  finding  a  squaw  one  evening  stealing  the  precious  fruit, 
lie  ruthlessly  shot  her  down.  Vengeance  was  sure  to  follow  so  wan- 
ton a  provocation.  Bui  the  Indians  awaited  a  favorable  opportunity. 
While  Stuyvesanl  had  withdrawn  all  available  fighting  men  for  the 
greal  ami  bloodless  expedition  to  the  Delaware,  a  swarm  of  savages 
of  the  .Mohawk,  the  .Mohican,  and  other  river  tribes,  rushed  down 
upon  the  almost  defenseless  city.  They  entered  the  farmers'  houses 
on  t  he  way  down,killing  and  burning  as  they  went .  In  t  he  early  morn- 
ing of  September  L5,  1655,  they  came  before  the  fort  into  which  the 
fighting  men  that  remained  had  hastily  withdrawn,  to  present  as 
good  an  older  of  defense  as  they  could.  Van  Dyck  was  wounded, 
but  not  mortally,  by  an  arrow,  and  Schepen  Van  der  (irift  barely 
missed  being  brained  by  a  tomahawk.  The  Indians  were  a  little  cau- 
tions about  the  fort  guns,  however,  and  assembled  upon  the  river 
strand,  planning  new  outrages.  A  delegation  from  the  fort  went  out 
to  parley  wit  h  t  hem ;  at  first  they  promised  to  go  over  to  Xutten  (Gov- 
ernor's) Island  for  the  night.  Bui  when  they  failed  to  cross  over,  and 
a  second  attempt  to  parley  with  them  was  made,  they  attacked  the 
party  sent  to  them  on  the  errand  of  peace,  killing  one  of  them.  Then 
the  Dutch  opened  fire,  driving  them  into  their  canoes.  As  they  pad- 
dled away,  however,  they  still  managed  to  kill  a  few  of  the  colonists. 
They  crossed  t  he  river  to  t  he  . Jersey  shore,  and  soon  one  after  another 
farm  or  settlement  was  in  flames.  Thence  paddling  over  to  Staten 
Island,  t  wenty-t  hree  of  the  ninety  colonists  fell  victims  to  t  heir  rage. 
It  was  estimated  that  nearly  a  thousand  red  men  engaged  in  this 
work  of  sanguinary  retaliation.  The  reign  of  terror  lasted  t  hree  days, 
in  which  brief  period  over  one  hundred  of  the  settlers  were  killed, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  were  taken  prisoners,  and  more  than  three 
hundred  lost  all  their  possessions.  Stuyvesanl  was  hastily  sum- 
moned back  to  .Manhattan,  and  by  a  mixture  of  firmness  and  tact, 
ami  a  self-restraint  which  he  exhibited  as  a  soldier,  but  never  could 
command  as  a  civilian,  he  soon  brought  the  Indians  to  terms, 
and  secured  permanent  quiet  throughout  the  neighboring  settle- 
ments. 

Such  then  was  the  run  of  events  while  ruled  the  last  of  the  four  Di- 
rectors-General, and  New  Nelherland  w;is  coining  to  the  end  of  its 
subjection  to  the  Hag  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  What  was  the  incipient 
metropolis  beginning  to  look  like,  and  what  were  some  of  the  phases 
of  existence  to  be  met  with?    At  the  time  New  Amsterdam  became 

an  incorporated  Dutch  city,  the  population  is  said  to  have  numbered 
some  seven  hundred  ami  fifty  souls.  Yet  even  at  that  time  the  city 
was  considered  to  embrace  the  whole  of  .Manhattan  Island.    It  is  no 


HISTORY  OF  THK  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


5] 


wonder  then  thai  wolves  and  bears  infested  the  more  lonely  regions 
of  the  city,  and  many  a  head  of  cattle  was  sacrificed  to  their  voracity. 
In  L660  part  of  this  vast  outlying  wilderness  was  laid  out  as  a  vil- 
lage, which  received  the  name  that  still  denotes  that  portion  of  our 
city,  but  w  hich  has  become  the  center  of  it  instead  of  a  remote  out- 
post. The  people  of  New  Amsterdam  never  forgot  alter  what  city 
t  hey  named  t heir  tow  n,  and  so  as  set  t  lements  were  made  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, they  would  recall  the  vicinity  of  the  mother  city  by  giving 
to  such  places  the  names  of  neighboring  localities  at  home.  A  num- 
ber of  families  going  out  to  the  northeast  extremity  of  the  island 
were  given  the  privilege  of  erecting  a  church,  which  they  built  near 
the  river.  And  the  name  New  Haerlem  seemed  a  proper  appendix 
to  that  of  New  Amsterdam. 

New  Amsterdam  would  not  have  been  a  Dutch  city  without  a  mi- 
litia or  "  schuttery."  No  town  at  home  was  without  its  doelen,  aud 
tourists  to-day  find  Doelenllotels  in  every  part  of  liolland,  t  hese  being 
originally  the  headquarters  or  armories  of  the  train-bands.  The  New 
Amsterdam  militia,  called  the  Burgher  Wacht,  Citizen's  Watch  or 
Guard,  consisted  of  two  companies,  one  carrying  a.  blue  ensign,  the 
other  one  of  orange.  They  seem  to  have  had  some  difficulty  in  provid- 
ing themselves  with  a  sufficient  supply  of  firearms,  but  Stuyvesant 
took  a  great  interest  in  them,  and  allowed  them  to  be  supplied  from 
the  Company's  chest,  until  they  could  purchase  their  own.  After  the 
incorporation  the  authorities  established  a  "  Rattle  Watch  "  of  about 
six  men.  These  were  to  do  duty  at  night,  to  give  alarm  in  case  of 
fire,  to  arrest  thieves  or  prowlers.  They  carried  a  large  rattle  which 
announced  occasionally  that  they  were  on  hand,  or  aroused  the  citi- 
zens in  case  of  need.  Thirty  or  forty  years  ago  such  a  rattle  might  be 
heard  in  the  streets  of  many  a  Dutch  city  in  the  dead  of  night,  and  ii 
may  be  a  practice  still  in  some  provincial  towns.  The  Rattle  Watch 
was  not  left  alone,  however,  to  cope  with  the  problem  of  tires.  A  fire 
department  had  been  created  even  before  the  city  was  incorporated, 
but  in  1657  more  effective  measures  were  taken  than  ever  before  for 
preventing  or  extinguishing  fires.  Hooks  and  ladders,  and  ropes  and 
leather  buckets,  were  provided.  Before  November  1  two  shoemakers 
had  constructed  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  buckets,  and  they  were 
distributed  over  the  town  at  convenient  points,  a  dozen  in  each  place, 
while  about  fifty  were  kept  at  the  City  Hall. 

The  danger  of  fire  as  the  population  increased  naturally  convinced 
the  people  of  the  expediency  of  building  safer  houses.  The  wooden 
dwelling,  with  its  wooden  chimney  and  its  thatched  roof,  was  a  con- 
stant invitation  to  the  fire  fiend.  Yet  such  dwellings  were  still  in 
the  majority  as  late  as  1658.  An  ordinance  of  that  year  forced  the 
people  to  build  chimneys  of  stone  or  brick,  and  forbade  roofs  of 
straw  or  reeds.  From  that  time  may  be  dated  tin1  change  in  the  ap- 
pearance and  quality  of  the  dwellings,  and  some  of  the  more  pros- 


52 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


pri  ons  citizens  put  up  mansions  of  sonic  pretension.  Si  uyvesanl  found 
che  Governor's  house  in  the  fort  unsuitable  for  occupancy.  It  had 
been  good  enough  for  the  bachelor  directors,  but  he  wanted  some- 
thing better  for  his  lady.  So  he  built  a  substantial  house  of  stone  at 
the  water's  edge,  about  where  is  the  corner  of  W  hitehall  and  State 
streets  now.  A  little  garden  surrounded  the  dwelling,  and  a  private 
miniature  dock  housed  the  Director's  barge  of  state.  The  house  re- 
ceived the  name  of  Whitehall  in  later  days,  and  Thence  has  the  street 
derived  its  designation. 

It  was  during  this  term  that  many  of  the  streets  familial-  to  us  now 
began  to  be  laid  out  and  received  names,  some  of  which  have  come 
down  to  our  day  in  English  form.  W  all  Street  was  as  much  a  fortifi- 
cation as  a  street.  Eleven  families  lived  on  the  south  side,  and  ten 
on  the  north,  or  outside,  called  Cingel.  In  the  middle  ran  a  line  of 
solid  planks  pointed  at  the  top,  set  close  together,  ami  held  firmly  by 
cross  timbers;  it  stretched  quite  across  the  island,  from  Broadway  i<> 
the  East  River.  At  the  river's  edge  there  was  a  "  water  gate,"  and 
on  Broadway  a  "  land  gate  "  opened  a  way  into  the  country.  Broad- 
way was  then  called  the  lleeren  Straat,  or  Gentlemen's  Street,  and 
twenty-two  families  resided  upon  either  side.  On  the  west  side  the 
yards  or  gardens  reached  to  the  water.  Coming  down  the  hill  to  the 
fort,  there  was  the  open  space  now  called  the  Howling  Green.  It  was 
called  the  Marketlield  (Marktveld)  then,  and  a  row  of  houses,  ac- 
commodating eleven  families,  stood  on  the  left  or  east  side.  Burgo- 
master Crigier  lived  here,  and  a  little  alley  or  steegje  running  to  Broad 
Stieet,  finds  its  equivalent  to-day  in  .Marketlield  Street.  Stone  Si  reel 
w  as  then  Brouwer  Straat,  because  Burgomaster  Van  Cortlandt,  a  fa- 
mous brewer,  lived  in  it .  while  it  derived  its  present  name  Prom  the  fact 
that  it  was  paved  sooner  than  its  neighbors.  Parol  Straat  indicates 
where  Pearl  st  reet  was  to  be  afterward,  alt  hough  the  name  then  indi- 
cated only  one  block  from  State  to  Whitehall,  where  the  oyster  shells 
on  t  he  beach  gave  a  faint  suggest  ion  of  l  he  pearl.  Pearl  from  W  hite- 
hall to  Broad  was  t hen  (  ailed 't  W  ater,  and  here  stood  t  he  old  discard- 
ed church,  where  former  Schepen  and  Burgomaster  Allerton  had  his 
store  a1  this  time.  Again,  Pearl  from  Broad  to  W  all  St  reel,  was  called 
lloog  Straat,  or  High  Street,  and  this  was  the  thoroughfare  most 
closely  beset  wit h  dwellings.  It  must  be  remembered  that  it  faced  the 
river,  and  thus  had  only  one  row  of  houses,  yet  forty-one  families  re- 
sided here  in  L66  I.  To  keep  t  he  high  tides  from  invading  l  hese  homes 
t  he  city  built  a  sort  of  sea  wall,  called  a  "  Schoeving,"  along  t  he  shore, 
reaching  from  the  City  Hall  at  Coenties  Slip,  to  the  "  water  gate  "  at 
W  all  Street. 

Bui  perhaps  the  most  interesting  feature  of  the  old  city,  and  one 
most  difficull  to  recall,  because  all  traces  of  it  are  utterly  removed,  is 
I  he  system  of  canal  streets  w  hich  so  lovingly  reproduced  conditions 
in  the  mother  city  «»f  Amsterdam.    Who  would  think  today  tint 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


STUYVESANT  DESTROYING  NICHOLS'S  LETTER. 


Broad  Street  was  once  a  canal  street?  A  creek  or  inlet  curved  up 
from  the  river,  stopping  at  the  bottom  «»f  the  slight  elevation  which  is 
still  apparent  in  the  short  block  from  Exchange  Place  to  Wall  Street. 
This  inlet  (sometimes  designated  by  the  rather  undignified  term 
"  ditch  ")  was  deepened  and  widened  and  its  sides  straightened  and 
boarded  up  in  the  approved  Dutch  manner  of  making  canals.  And 
then  the  street  thus  duly  adorned  with  a  waterway  in  the  center  was 
named  the  "  Heeren  Gracht,"  or  Gentlemen's  Canal.  Twenty  families 
resided  here,  among  them  the  oft-named  Patroon  of  Staten  Island, 
Cornelius  Melyn.  A  family  by  the  name  of  Romeyn  lived  here,  and 
also  one  Nicholas  Du  Puys,  to  whose  presence  in  the  town  we  doubt- 
less owe  the  existence  in  these  days  of  "  our  own  "  Chauncey  M.  De- 
pew.    Not  satisfied  with  one  canal  street,  the  New  Amsterdam- 


54 


HISTORY  OF  THK  GRKATER  NEW  YORK. 


mers  would  fain  have  two  others.  The  famotis  "  Heeren  Gracht  "  of 
Amsterdam,  then  and  now  the  Fifth  Avenue  of  the  Dutch  metropolis, 
received  a  counterpart  iii  the  new  town.  The  "  Prinsen  Gracht/'  a 
thoroughfare  only  less  noted,  received  a  reproduction  on  a  very  small 
scale,  by  fixing  up. a  ditch  at  right  angles  to  Broad  Street,  where 
Beaver  Street  now  runs  to  its  terminus  in  Pearl.  ITere  lived  about 
seventeen  families,  Jacob  Kip,  the  town  secretary  among  them;  and 
here,  too,  resided  one  Baai  Roosvelt,  a  name  our  city  shall  not  "  will- 
ingly let  die."  Toward  the  west,  Beaver  Street  was  also  made  into  a 
canal  street,  named  "  Bever  Gracht."  A  bridge  over  the  Broad  Street 
canal  gave  the  name  to  Bridge  Street  (Brugh  Straat),  and  upon  this 
bridge  the  merchants  of  that  day  did  mostly  congregate,  constituting 
it  a  sort  of  impromptu  and  primitive  exchange,  almost  under  the 
shadow  of  the  tower  of  the  Produce  Exchange  that  now  is.  Of  the 
other  streets  then  laid  out  and  occupied  by  houses  we  need  only  men- 
tion briefly  the  Smee  Straat  (Smith  Street),  now  the  part  of  William 
between  Broad  and  Wall,  including  South  William;  Smits  Valey  (Yly 
or  Fly),  along  the  Fast  Fiver  from  Wall  to  Fulton  Ferry,  and 't  Water 
(the  Water),  the  west  side  of  Whitehall  from  State  to  Pearl.  Dr. 
nans  Kierstede,  Annoke  Jans's  son-in-law,  resided  upon  the  latter, 
and  fourteen  other  families  besides. 

Tt  w  as  not  until  Stuyvesant's  time  thai  the  problem  of  laying  out 
streets  and  building  upon  them  with  some  idea  of  regularity  received 
any  attention.  At  his  instance  surveyors  of  streets  and  buildings 
were  appointed.  Tn  November,  in.")."*,  Allard  Anthony,  burgomaster, 
and  Councilor  Dr.  La  Montagne  constituted  a  committee  to  report 
upon  the  work  of  the  surveyors.  Sanitary  conditions  were  also  im- 
proved under  the  Director's  care.  A  dock  was  constructed  on  the  Fast 
Fiver  side  off  "  the  Water"  described  above,  and  anchorage  places 
assigned  in  the  river  for  ships  of  various  burden  or  draught.  Postal 
facilities  there  were  none;  the  Company  bad  a  box  placed  at  the  en- 
trance of  their  new  building  on  the  Fapenbnrg  at  Amsterdam  for  the 
reception  of  all  letters  to  America,  and  they  recommended  that  a 
similar  device  for  collecting  the  mail  in  one  sitot  and  carrying  it  in 
one  bag  be  adopted  at  New  Amsterdam.  Trade  w  ith  the  neighboring 
colonies,  or  with  foreign  countries  abroad  was  only  to  be  carried  on 
in  ships  of  the  Company.  Tt  may  easily  be  imagined  that  this  restric- 
tion served  as  the  signal  for  a  brisk  smusrelina  business.  The  cur- 
rency of  the  town  and  province  was  still  beaver  skins  and  wampum, 
or  beads  strung  on  strings,  or  loose.  The  latter  w  as  a  currency  easily 
mutilated,  and  while  a  certain  number  of  beads,  white  or  black,  rep- 
resented a  Dutch  stuyver  (=two  cents  F.  S.).  the  introduction  of 
broken  beads,  or  those  of  a  poor  duality  from  New  England,  broughl 
about  a  t^i-eat  confusion  of  values,  and  the  withdrawal  of  tin*  better 
Kind  from  circulation.  Stnvvesant  labored  long  and  earnestly  to 
remedy  the  matter  by  banishing  the  primitive  Indian  currency  alto- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREAT  ILK   X  KYV  YORK. 


.->.-> 


gether  and  substituting  Dutch  coins  of  sma  1 1  value.  Bu1  lie  was  dis- 
couraged and  opposed  in  the  measure  by  the  Company  at  home. 

As  may  be  imagined,  the  population  of  the  (own  was  considerably 
depleted  by  the  ravages  and  Hie  fright  of  the  Indian  rising  in  L655. 
But  soon  after,  there  came  to  be  a  replenishing  by  means  of  immi- 
grants from  the  home  country.  There  is  preserved  a  list  of  arrivals 
per  various  ships  from  1657  to  1664,  and  from  this  we  learn  both  the 
particular  persons  and  families  that  came  over,  and  (he  precise  num- 
ber of  accessions  from  year  to  year.  These  figures  will  be  interest  ing 
in  comparison  with  the  myriads  that  now  annually  arrive  at  our 
port.  In  1657  there  were  only  thirty-three.  In  1658  the  number  ad- 
vanced suddenly  to  three  hundred  and  five,  one  ship,  the  "  Faith," 
carrying  as  many  as  a  hundred.  In  1660  one  hundred  and  seventy-one 
persons  arrived,  but  a  number  of  these  were  soldiers.  In  1661  just 
one  less  than  a  hundred  emigrated  to  New  Netherland;  in  1602  there 
were  two  hundred  and  eight;  in  1663,  two  hundred  and  fifty-two;  and 
in  1664,  sixty-four,  eight  of  whom  arrived  in  a  vessel  appropriately 
called  the  "  Broken  Heart,"  in  view  of  the  feelings  of  the  Director  in 
having  to  surrender.  The  whole  number  of  immigrants  as  thus  re- 
corded amounted  to  eleven  hundred  and  thirty-two.  Some  of  these 
ships  seemed  to  ply  regularly  between  old  Amsterdam  and  New  Am- 
sterdam, as  their  names  appear  upon  the  list  three  or  four  times. 
Many  of  these  immigrants  were  mechanics,  farmers,  and  trades  peo- 
ple; many  of  them  came  over  with  large  families  of  children.  Tn  April, 
1600,  the  "  Spotted  Cow  "  conveyed  two  families  with  seven  children, 
and  one  with  eight.  While  these  new  arrivals  mostly  belonged  to  the 
humbler  classes  of  society,  occasionally  men  of  learning  or  of  wealth 
came  over.  Indeed,  so  definitely  had  "  classes  "  already  established 
themselves  in  the  young  community  that  the  body  of  the  Nine  Mem 
was  made  up  of  three  men  representing  the  large  land  proprietors 
or  Patroons,  three  to  represent  the  merchants  or  shop-keepers,  and 
three  the  farmers  and  mechanics.  There  was  also  a  professional 
class,  composed  of  a  few  lawyers,  two  ministers,  and  a  couple  of  phy- 
sicians and  surgeons.  At  the  instance  of  one  of  the  latter  a  primitive 
hospital  was  instituted,  with  a  matron  at  a  salary  of  100  florins  i'$40). 
This  was  doing  well  for  so  small  a  town  and  so  limited  a  population, 
which  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  was  estimated  at  about  fifteen  hun- 
dred souls.  The  church  in  the  fort  was  still  sufficient  for-  the  spiritual 
needs  of  the  people,  and  one  pastor  at  first  served  them  well  enough. 
The  Rev.  Johannes  Backerus,  who  had  been  settled  at  Curacao  when 
Stuyvesanl  was  stationed  there,  was  perhaps  induced  for  that  reason 
to  come  to  New  Amsterdam.  "Rut  he  stayed  only  one  year,  not  liking 
the  commotions  aroused  by  the  arbitrary  conduct  of  the  Director,  and 
in  which  he  was  innocently  made  to  bear  a  part.  Tn  1040  the  Rev.  Jo- 
hannes Mooaoolonsis  was  reouested  to  come  down  from  Fort  Orange, 
where  he  had  labored  since  1042.    TTe  remained  in  New  Amsterdam 


» 


56 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


till  L669,  ;m<l  in  1664  was  joined  in  his  labors  there  by  liis  son,  the 
Rev.  Samuel,  who  remained  till  1668,  and  then  went  to  Holland.  Tn 
1652  tin*  Hoy.  Samuel  Drisius  became  co-pastor  of  the  Dutch  church, 
so  that  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  no  less  than  three  ministers  up- 
hold tlie  doctrines  of  the  Synod  of  Port  on  Manhattan  Island.  And 
it  is  painful  to  add  that  now,  perhaps  from  this  access  of  theologi- 
ans, no  other  doctrines  were  tolerated  in  New  Amsterdam  or  in  the 
vicinity.  A  Lutheran  pastor  called  by  some  devout  Germans  was 
promptly  turned  face  about  by  the  Direct  or  and  shipped  back  to  Hol- 
land. Placards  like  those  of  the  Inquisition  at  Brussels  of  old  were 
posted  a1  Midwont  (Flatbush)  forbidding  any  person  from  harboring 
•  junkers.  Baptists  too  were  held  to  be  equally  obnoxious,  and  were 
banished  from  the  town.  Homines  Drisius  and  Megapolensis  were 
directly  responsible  for  this  intolerant  conduct  on  the  part  of  Stuy- 
vesant,  and  they  urged  him  to  go  to  oven  greater  lengths  than  he  did. 
Yet  to  the  credit  of  Megapolensis  it  must  be  said  that  he  was  largely 
instrumental  in  rescuing  both  Fathers  Jogues  and  Bressani  from  the 
Indians.  To  Drisius,  on  the  other  hand,  belongs  the  credit  of  urging 
the  establishment,  of  a  Latin  school.  Dr.  Alexander  Charles  Curtius 
was  called  to  be  principal  of  it,  and  in  three  years  after  its  establish- 
ment. (1659)  it  drew  pupils  from  Virginia  and  the  Delaware.  As  to 
schools  for  more  elementary  studies,  one  was  opened  by  dan  Steven- 
son in  1648,  and  another  by  Jan  Cornelissen  over  a  grocery  store  in 
L650.  Moneys  were  occasionally  collected  for  building  a  school-house 
under  both  Kieft  and  Stuyvesant,  but  the  funds  were  almost  invari- 
ably needed  for  administrative  purposes,  and  school  was  kept  at  the 
houses  of  the  teachers.  Hut  besides  these  schoolmasters  appointed 
and  paid  by  the  West  India  Company,  and  under  the  supervision  of 
the  church,  there  were  also  private  teachers.  The  Rev.  JEgidius 
Luyck  was  one  of  these.  He  had  come  over  as  private  tutor  in  Stuy- 
vesant's  family,  for  his  own  and  the  Bayard  children,  but  for  some 
reason  he  was  dismissed.  He  pursued  his  profession  at  his  house  in 
the  now  extinct  Winckel  Straat.  A  school  was  started  also  for  the 
benefit  of  the  children  of  the  settlement  which  had  grown  lip  around 
Stuyvesant's  Bouwery  in  the  neighborhood  of  Thirteenth  Street  and 
Second  Avenue.  Here  also  religious  services  were  held  in  the  after- 
noon of  Sundays,  the  Rev.  Henry  Selyns,  who  came  to  lireiickelen  in 

L660,  officiating  there,  as  well  as  at  the  Wallaboul  and  Gowanus. 
Thus  in  1  <i(»4.  counting  Harlem  also,  the  gospel  was  dispensed  simul- 
taneously at  three  different  localities  on  Manhattan. 

hi  the  year  L648  came  to  a  close  the  Eighty  Years*  War  for  Dutch 
independence.  Then  finally  and  formally  by  the  Treaty  of  Munster, 
or  Peace  of  Westphalia,  Spain  acknowledged  what  it  had  been  forced 
to  concede  virtually  four  decades  before  at  the  truce,  that  the  United 
States  of  the  "Netherlands  were  a  lice  and  independent  nation,  to  be 
ranked  as  a  sovereign  state  with  all  the  other  stales  of  Europe,  [n 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GRK.VIT.K   XKW  YORK. 


57 


the  same  year  English  patriots,  taught  by  the  Dutch  Declaration  of 
Independence  of  1581,  had  dealt  summary  punishment  to  the  king 
who  had  proved  himself  unworthy  to  reign.  Unnatural  Avar  between 
the  Commonwealth  of  England  under  Cromwell  and  the  Dutch  Repub- 
lic under  John  De  Witt,  had  raged  for  many  years  while  Stuyvesant 
ruled  New  Netherland,  and  during  those  years  he  had  been  constantly 
apprehensive  of  an  attack  by  a  force  sent  out  by  the  mother  country. 
He  had  no  fear  of  the  surrounding  colonies,  but  fully  expecting  an  at- 
tack from  a  naval  and  land  force  from  abroad,  he  constantly  urged 
upon  the  Company,  and  upon  the  citizens,  the  necessity  of  strengthen- 
ing the  defenses  of  Manhattan,  and  especially  the  fort.  P>nt  no  heed 
was  paid  to  his  representations,  and  at  the  return  of  peace  the  ex- 
penditures required  seemed  still  less  desirable.  Charles  TT.  was  re- 
stored to  the  throne  of  his  father  in  1660.  He  had  enjoyed  aid  and 
comfort  and  asylum  in  Holland  during  much  of  his  exile.  Upon  his 
accession  it  was  no  wonder  that  all  thoughts  of  war  between  the  two 
countries  should  have  been  far  from  men's  minds.  And  so  there  was 
no  war  in  1664.  Who  then  could  have  expected  that  now  would  hap- 
pen what  failed  to  occur  in  the  years  of  war?  Suddenly  in  August 
of  that  year  four  English  vessels,  carrying  a  force  of  several  hundred 
land  troops,  the  whole  expedition  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Richard  Nicolls,  appeared  in  the  Upper  Bay  and  demanded  the  surren- 
der of  fort,  city,  and  province.  In  return  for  the  benefits  the  Dutch 
had  bestowed  upon  him,  Charles  II.  had  patented  away  all  of  their 
possessions  in  America  to  his  brother  James,  Duke  of  York,  and  Nic- 
olls  claimed  the  region  on  the  strength  of  this  grant.  At  the  same  time 
there  was  a  rising  among  the  English  villages  of  Long  Island.  A 
force  of  English  colonists  stood  ready  to  invade  the  boundary  of  New 
Netherland  there,  doubtless  not  without  collusion  with  the  invading 
expedition  from  abroad.  Stuyvesant,  conscious  of  his  defenseless 
state,  a  dilapidated  fort,  inadequate  supply  of  troops,  practically  no 
fortifications  to  protect  the  city  against  civilized  foes,  was  yet  too 
much  of  a  soldier  to  think  of  immediate  surrender.  He  tore  the  letter 
demanding  it  into  fragments,  and  was  for  making  a  desperate  resist- 
ance. But  his  greatest  weakness  was  a  discontented  commonalty. 
Tn  violation  of  the  spirit  of  their  institutions  at  home,  Stuyvesant  had 
ruled  them  as  a  despot  in  the  service  of  a  commercial  monopoly.  They 
wished  to  share  the  more  liberal  treatment  which  the  English  col- 
onies enjoyed.  There  really  was  no  possibility  of  successfully  resist- 
ing the  overwhelming  odds  threatening  by  land  and  water.  The 
Council  voted  surrender,  the  citizens  clamored  for  it.  Irate  and 
self-willed  to  the  last,  Peter  the  Headstrong  stormed  up  and  down 
the  walls  of  the  fort,  llo  would  have  trained  and  discharged  defiant 
guns  with  his  own  hands.  But  Domino  Megapolensis  quietly  wen1 
up  to  him,  represent ed  the  hopelessness  of  the  case,  plead  against 
the  needless  destruction  of  innocent  lives,  and  Stuyvesant  yielded. 


58 


HISTORY   OF  T1IK  (iRKATKR   NEW  YORK. 


On  August  2i>,  L664,  Col.  Lliehard  Nicolls  and  his  troops  Landed  upon 
.Manhat tnn  Island;  1 1 » < -  flag  of  the  Republic  was  lowered  from  the 
Staff  where  it  had  so  proudly  waved  for  half  a  century,  and  the  royal 
ensign  of  England  was  run  up  in  its  place. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  CITY  BECOMES  ENGLISH. 

EW  AMSTERDAM  had  now  become  New  York.  How  ap- 
propriate was  the  former  name,  how  entirely  imsignificant 
the  later  one!  There  is  nol hing  in  York  to  suggest  ils 
namesake  in  the  new  world.  lis  associations  are  entirely 
ecclesiastical,  not  at  all  commercial.  lis  position  in  the  realm  has 
no  parallel  to  thai  of  our  city  in  the  Republic.  Bui  Amsterdam  was 
then,  and  is  now,  to  ils  country  what  New  York  is  to  the  United 
States.  It  is  not  the  political,  but  the  commercial  capital  of  Holland, 
just  as  New  York  is  not  the  seat  of  government,  but  the  metropolis 
<»f  America.  11  would  be  a  matter  of  poetic  fitness  and  historic  truth, 
if  not  of  any  special  euphony,  if  even  yet  the  original  name  were  to 
be  restored,  and  the  one  designation  for  all  of  Greater  New  York- 
were  once  again  to  be  New  Amsterdam. 

It  seems  hardly  worth  while  to  open  the  discussion  of  the  English 
claim  to  the  territory  of  New  Netherland,  for  we  shall  never  arrive 
at  any  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  question.  No  doubt  the  discov- 
eries on  the  North  American  Continent  made  by  the  Cabots  in  1407 
and  1498  gave  England  a  general  title  to  it,  as  the  matter  was  under- 
stood in  those  days.  Subsequent  patents  given  to  Virginia  or  New 
England  settlers  no  doubt  overlapped  sufficiently  to  quite  cover  the 
degrees  of  latitude  where  the  Dulch  province  was  located.  We  read 
a  curious  statement  in  William  Smith's  history,  published  in  1732. 
He  says  that  Hudson  discovered  these  regions  in  lfiOS  (sic)  and 
"sold"  his  claim  to  the  Dutch.  And  he  continues  naively:  '"their 
writers  contend  that  Hudson  was  sent  out  by  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company.  There  was  a  sale,  however;  the  English  objected,  but  they 
neglected  settlement."  Investigation  has  since  proved  that  the  ac- 
count of  the  Dutch  writers  was  more  than  a  contention.  It  had  a 
solid  basis  of  fact.  Yet  it  is  also  true  that  Captain  Hudson  was  in- 
duced to  seek  the  vicinity  of  our-  river  by  maps  or  hints  given  him 
bv  Captain  John  Smith,  who  may  have  had  a  view  of  our  coast,  if  not 
of  the  river.  Accommodating  as  was  international  law  in  tin-  matter 
of  discovery,  it  did  contain  this  proviso,  that  title  to  a  country  discov- 
ered was  only  perfected  if  discovery  were  followed  bv  occupancy. 
Queen  Elizabeth  maintained  this  principle  of  Vattel's  very  strongly 
against  Spanish  claims;  and  it  told  with  great  force  against  English 


00 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


claims  on  the  Hudson.  Perhaps,  therefore,  they  supposed  they  could 
neutralize  their  neglect  to  occupy  by  repeated  protests  against  the 
occupancy  of  the  Dutch.  They  certainly  were  consistent  enough  in 
these.  Captain  Argal  is  represented  as  having  protested  against 
Christiaensen's  little  trading  post  on  Manhattan  Island  in  1614. 
Hudson's  Half  Moon  was  kepi  at  Dartmouth  for  half  a  year,  and 
he  himself  forbidden  to  report  in  person  at  Amsterdam.  Minuit's 
vessel,  the  "  Endracht,"  was  also  held  when  it  touched  an  English 
port.  The  case  of  the  "  William,"  sent  back  to  England  by  Van 
Twiller  minus  a  cargo,  lingered  in  the  courts,  and  formed  the  subject 
of  protocols  and  state  papers  between  England  and  Holland.  And 
when  the  charter  was  about  to  be  granted  to  the  West  India  Company 


rm:  "  duke' 8  PLAN. 


in  ltii'l  a  vigorous  protest  was  served  upon  the  States-General  by  the 
English  Ambassador.  It'  protests  therefore  could  relieve  the  neglect 
of  Vattel's  conditions  for  possession,  it  must  be  said  that  these  were 
on  hand  whenever  the  English  were  reminded  of  the  existence  of  the 
Dutch  settlement  on  the  Hudson,  or  whenever  they  could  get  into 
their  hands  a  vessel  from  those  parts.  Still,  to  any  honest  mind,  oc- 
cupancy, purchase  from  the  aborigines,  and  development  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  region,  should  have  been  sufficient  to  establish  a  title 
which  was  I(ki  valid  to  be  summarily  invaded  and  cast  aside.  Charles 
II.  and  his  court,  however,  were  not  troubled  with  an  overburdening 
amount  of  honesty.    It  was  treachery  to  a  friendly  nation  to  act  as 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


61 


Charles  did;  it  was  base  ingratitude  in  return  for  aid  and  protection 
in  bis  days  of  peril  and  poverty  and  exile.  But  what  recked  the  aban- 
doned profligate  of  this? 

Meanwhile  the  change  on  Manhattan  Island  bad  not  wrought  much 
havoc  in  the  condition  of  affairs.  It'  a  person  bad  gone  into  a  mild 
imitation  of  Kip  Van  W  inkle's  exploit,  to  the  extent  of  only  a  week  or 
ten  days,  on  the  arrival  of  Nicolls's  fleet  in  the  harbor,  bis  waking 
eyes  would  not  have  been  greatly  astonished  at  the  changes  that  met 
them.  There  was  another  flag  floating  over  the  fort,  it  is  true;  and 
if  he  had  had  occasion  to  call  on  the  governor  be  would  have  had  to 
lay  aside  bis  Dutch  vernacular;  but  otherwise  every  thing  was  pretty 
much  as  it  was  before.  The  terms  of  surrender  had  been  made  very 
easy.  Twenty-three  articles  of  capitulation  bad  beeu  laid  before  the 
citizens  of  New7  Amsterdam,  and  they  had  beeu  readily  accepted.  To 
soothe  Stuyvesant's  feelings,  the  garrison  were  permitted  to  march 
out  of  the  fort  with  the  honors  of  war — flying  colors,  drums  beating, 
lighted  matches.  All  the  people  were  to  continue  "  free  denizens," 
enjoying  their  lands  and  goods  and  freedom  of  worship.  Any  one 
wishing  to  go  back  to  Holland  could  do  so  free  of  expense  within  one 
year  and  six  weeks.  People  coming  from  Holland  to  settle  were  to 
be  entitled  to  all  privileges  exactly  as  before.  Vessels  in  trade  were 
to  come  and  go  as  before.  All  contracts  and  disputed  titles  were  to 
be  settled  in  accordance  with  Dutch  customs. 

Thus,  with  the  hearty  consent,  and  even  eager  desire,  of  the  "  free 
denizens,"  the  little  town  of  fifteen  hundred  souls  passed  iuto  the 
hands  of  its  English  master.  Nicolls  and  bis  men  were  the  repre- 
sentatives of  a  personal  proprietor.  Hitherto  the  province  had  been 
the  property  of  a  mercantile  corporation;  now  it  was  owned  in  fee 
simple  by  a  single  individual,  James,  Duke  of  York  and  Albany,  the 
brother  of  Charles  II.,  and  destined  to  succeed  him  upon  the  throne 
of  England  twenty-one  years  later.  It  was  to  bestow  this  gift  upon 
his  brother  that  Charles  had  ordered  the  robbery;  indeed,  the  gift 
was  made  before  the  robbery  took  place.  Yet  were  not  the  Dutch 
a  people  to  be  insulted  with  impunity.  The  little  Republic  declared 
war  against  England,  and  two  years  later,  in  1G0G,  the  insult  to  the 
flag  at  Fort  Amsterdam  was  more  than  repaid  by  Admiral  De 
Ruyter,  who  sailed  up  the  river  Thames,  burning  the  shipping  at 
Chatham,  and  making  the  houses  of  London  tremble  to  the  booming 
of  his  victorious  cannon.  Then  the  humbled  king  was  fain  to  make 
peace  with  little  Holland,  and  at  the  Peace  of  Breda,  in  1GG7,  New 
Netherland  was  ceded  to  England  in  exchange  for  Surinam  in  South 
America.  The  English  and  Dutch  were  both  convinced  that  the  lat- 
ter had  much  the  better  of  that  bargain.  Thus  the  West  India  Com- 
pany did  not  get  back  their  province,  for  which  they  had  cared  alto- 
gether too  little.  Yet  in  the  first,  moments  of  its  loss  they  showed 
considerable  resentment.    They  summoned  Director  Stuyvesant  to 


62 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Holland  to  answer  charges  of  cowardice  and  treason  for  having  sur- 
rendered without  a  blow.  Armed  with  sworn  testimonies  as  to  his 
own  faithfulness  and  bravery,  and  the  utter  defenselessness  of  the 
place  as  t  he  result  of  the  Company's  neglect,  St  uyvesant  went  to  Hol- 
land in  L665,  and  easily  vindicated  his  conduct  before  the  States-Gen- 
eral. Yet  the  suit  must  have  lingered  for  some  time,  for  it  was  not 
till  L667,  after  the  Peace  of  Breda  had  confirmed  the  transfer  of  the 
province,  that  Stuyvesant  returned.  (Mi  the  way  home  lie  stopped  in 
England,  and  did  his  fellow-citizens  a  last  good  turn  by  obtaining 
from  the  king  a  concession  to  the  effect  that,  instead  of  the  total  ex- 
clusion of  all  but  English  ships  from  the  privileges  of  trade  with  the 
port  of  New  York,  three  Dutch  ships  might  annually  trade  there  for 
a  period  of  seven  years.  Received  with  gladness  by  family  and 
friends,  and  even  former  antagonists,  Stuyvesant  henceforth  retired 
from  public  life,  lie  contented  himself  with  the  care  of  his  Bouwerie, 
or  farm,  in  the  part  of  the  city  where  some  memorials  of  his  presence 
still  abide,    lie  was  now  seventy-five  years  of  age,  and  had  earned 

his  rest  by  a  life  of  good 
service  and  activity.  Five 
years  later,  in  February, 
L672,  he  tlied.  and  was 
buried  in  a  little  chapel 
on  his  own  lands,  on  the 
v  e  r  y    spot    where  now 

stands  St.  Mark's-in-the- 
Bowery.  A  stone  in  the 
east  foundation  wall  of 
that  church  records  the 
fact  of  his  burial.  Had  he 
lived  a  year  and  a  half 
longer  his  honest  heart 
WOUld  have  rejoiced  to  see 
the  Hag  he  had  so  often 
defended  again  floating  over  his  beloved  city. 

So  careful  was  Governor  Nicolls  of  the  feelings  of  his  conquered 
citizens  that  he  did  not  even  make  a  change  in  the  municipal  officers. 
While  the  Council  of  the  Province  was  at  once  changed  in  complex- 
ion, with  not  a  Dutchman  in  it,  the  Burgomasters  and  Schepens  were 
left  as  they  were.  In  February  of  this  year  Faulus  Loondorson  Van 
die  Grist  and  Cornelius  Steenwyck  had  become  Burgomasters.  They 
were  permitted  to  serve  out  their  year.  In  February,  1665,  tin1  for- 
mer was  succeeded  by  Ololf  Stephenson  Van  Cortlandt,  and  Steen- 
wyck  was  re-appointed,  no  change  having  even  yet  been  provided  for 
by  Nicolls.  Hut  on  dune  12,  of  this  year,  the  Dutch  form  of  govern- 
ment was  replaced  by  the  English.  The  town  officers  were  now  to 
consist  of  :'.  mayor,  five  aldermen,  and  a  sheriff.    Yet  if  we  notice1  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


63 


men  appointed  to  serve  in  these  various  capacities,  we  observe  again 
what,  delicate  regard  was  had  to  the  feelings  of  the  people  of  the  city. 
Thomas  Willett  was  made  .Mayor;  we  find  him  a  welcome  companion 
of  the  Dutch  young  men  of  his  own  age  in  New  Amsterdam  as  early 
as  1(54:2.  Be  had  come  to  Plymouth  colony  in  1629,  and  having  shared 
the  fortunes  of  the  Pilgrims  in  Holland,  he  was  familiar  with  the 
Dutch  language  and  people  from  boyhood.  No  Englishman  could 
have  been  more  thoroughly  at  one  with  those  of  their  nationality 
at  the  present  time.  Of  the  aldermen  only  two  were  Englishmen, 
Thomas  Delavall  and  John  Lawrence;  the  others  were  ex-Burgomas- 
ter Van  Cortlandt,  John  Brugges,  and  Cornelius  Van  Ruyven;  while 
the  sheriff  was  Allard  Anthony,  who,  though  an  Englishman,  had 
been  one  of  the  original  Schepens  in  1053,  and  had  been  Burgomaster 
five  times  since.  Surely  the  Dutch  population  could  not  complain  of 
such  appointments.  Yet  some  did,  partly  because  of  the  change  of 
form,  partly  because  the  choice  of  the  men  was  taken  entirely  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  people,  the  Governor  claiming  the  exclusive  right  of 
appointing. 

Another  unpleasant  feature  of  the  change  was  the  taking  of  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new  power  now  in  authority.  It  was  con- 
tended that  this  requirement  conflicted  with  the  terms  of  surrender. 
But  Nicolls  gave  assurance  that  no  particular  therein  agreed  upon 
should  be  violated  as  the  result  of  the  oath.  Indeed,  the  proceeding 
was  so  inevitable  and  reasonable  under  the  circumstances,  that  Stuy- 
vesant  was  among  the  first  to  take  the  oath,  and  over  two  hundred 
and  fifty  heads  of  families  followed  his  example.  As  the  population 
was  only  fifteen  hundred,  this  must  have  taken  in  about  every  respon- 
sible male  member  of  the  community.  This  event  occurred  in  Octo- 
ber, 1664.  A  more  questionable  proceeding,  which  certainly  seemed 
to  violate  Articles  III  and  XVI  of  the  Capitulation,  was  a  decree  of 
the  Governor  in  1007  that  all  titles  to  land  derived  from  the  Dutch 
government  must  be  renewed  by  April  1,  on  pain  of  forfeiture  if  not 
so  renewed.  Nicolls  was  in  great  need  of  money,  and  the  fees  for  the 
new  titles  would  amount  to  a  goodly  sum.  The  old  records  of  the 
Long  Island  towns  show  that  even  its  free-spoken  citizens  were  com- 
pelled to  comply  with  the  obnoxious  decree.  That  island  had  been 
rechristened  Yorkshire,  divided  like  its  namesake  at  home  into  the 
North,  the  East,  and  the  West  Ridings.  The  West  Biding  now  em- 
braces all  of  Brooklyn,  and  parts  of  the  North  Riding  belong  now  also 
to  Greater  New  York.  The  Court  of  Assize,  from  whom  this  decree 
to  renew  titles  issued,  was  an  institution  that  owed  its  existence  to 
Nicolls,  in  pursuance  of  the  "  Duke's  Laws,"  a  code  diligently  elab- 
orated by  the  Governor  himself,  whose  father  was  a  barrister  and 
who  must  have  had  some  legal  training  himself.  While  these  laws 
established  a  very  unmistakable  autocracy,  making  the  Governor's 
will  supreme,  and  leaving  neither  officers  nor  measures  to  the  choice 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  the  people,  yet  it  secured  also  many  beneficent  features:  these 
being  in  short  "trial  by  jury,  equal  taxation,  tenure  of  laud  from 
the  Duke  of  fork,  no  religious  establishment,  but  requirement  of 
some  church  form,  freedom  of  religion  to  all  professing  Christianity, 
obligatory  service  in  each  parish  on  Sunday,  a  recognition  of  negro 
slavery  under  certain  restrictions,  and  general  liability  to  military 
duty." 

W  hen  Nicolls  returned  to  England  in  1668,  he  left  behind  him  a 
city  still  puny  compared  t<»  what  was  to  be,  but  increased  to  a  pop- 
ulation of  about  two  thousand.  Its  exports  were,  as  of  old,  mainly 
furs,  still  gathered  from  the  Indians,  who  were  mostly  rewarded  by 
overdoses  of  rum.  imported  from  the  West  Indies,  w  hich  contempora- 
ries describe  as  execrably  bad.  The  farmers  had  plenty  of  super- 
fluous  wheat  to  scud  abroad,  and  if  facilities  tor  preservation  had  ex- 
isted then  as  now,  endless  store  of  provisions  in  the  way  of  venison 
and  game  could  have  been  spared  for  export.  A  few  more  houses, 
and  these  of  an  ever-improv  ing  quality,  stood  upon  t  he  st reel s  enume- 
rated in  the  previous  chapter;  but  otherwise  no  great  changes  had 
occurred  in  their  appearance  since  Stuyvesant's  rule.  Neither  seems 
there  to  have  been  any  alteration  of  their  names;  for  as  late  as  1686 
the  Dutch  names  still  prevail,  even  in  cases  where  former  designa- 
tions have  disappeared.  The  old  streets  with  new  names  still  are 
Dutch. 

The  policy  of  conciliating  the  preponderating  Dutch  element  of  the 

population  was  wisely  continued  by 
Nicolls*S  successor  in  the  Governor- 
ship. Francis  Lovelace.  In  L668 
Cornelius  Steenwyck  was  appointed 
by  him  Mayor  of  New  York.  Hav- 
ing been  Burgomaster  more  than 
once,  the  function  with  its  new  title 
was  an  old  one  for  him.  liut  such 
was  the  confidence  reposed  in  him 
by  Lovelace  that  frequently  in  his 
absence  from  New  York  he  practi- 
cally invested  Steenwyck  with  the 
powers  of  acting-governor.  His 
business  was  general  merchant  and 
storekeeper,  his  residence  being  on 
the  southeast  corner  of  Bridge  and  Whitehall  streets.  Among  the 
half  do/en  wealthy  men  of  the  town,  whose  fortunes  in  Hi74  were 
reckoned  by  live  figures,  lie  stood  second.  His  command  of  English 
was  very  good,  only  a  slight  brogue  bet  raying  the  born  Dutchman. 

Lovelace  w  as  a  good  deal  of  a  traveler.  Nicolls  had  conducted  him 
on  horseback  over  much  of  the  province,  and  the  miserable  condi- 
tions of  intercommunication  between  its  various  parts  and  the 


BURGH  >vi  \>TKK 

steenwtck's  HOUSE. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


65 


neighboring  colonies  made  a  deep  impression  on  him.  The  interest 
of  the  city  and  province  seemed  to  require  the  establishment  of  a  pos- 
tal service  between  Boston  and  New  York  and  intermediate  points. 
In  the  lively  letters  that  flowed  from  his  pen  to  friends  in  England, 
we  learn  of  that  first  postoffice  and  route  established  in  New  York. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Province  held  the  key  to  a  box  which  received 
the  letters.  Once  a  month,  beginning  with  January  1,  1673,  the  post- 
man, mounted  upon  a  goodly  horse  which  had  to  carry  him  as  far  as 
Hartford,  collected  the  accumulated  mail  into  his  saddle  bags.  At 
Hartford  he  took  another  horse,  and  wended  his  way  as  best  he  might 
through  woods  and  swamps,  across  rivers,  and  along  Indian  trails, 
if  he  was  happy  enough  to  find  such.  On  his  return  the  city  coffee- 
house received  his  precious  burden,  and  upon  a  broad  table  the 
various  missives  were  displayed  and  delivered  when  paid  for.  Events 
soon  to  be  related  interrupted  this  beneficent  arrangement,  and  not 
till  1685  do  we  find  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  city  fathers  to  re- 
sume a  postal  system.  The  price  then  proposed  was  three  pence  for 
every  letter  carried  one  hundred  miles  or  less;  more  in  proportion 
for  greater  distances.  Another  measure  for  the  promotion  of  busi- 
ness to  be  credited  to  Lovelace  was  the  establishment  of  a  merchants' 
exchange  on  a  bridge  over  the  canal  in  Broad  Street.  On  Fridays, 
at  the  hour  of  eleven  to  twelve,  the  Town  Hall  bell  rang  to  call  the 
merchants  together,  and  the  city  authorities  were  to  see  to  it  that  no 
disturbances  should  interfere  with  this  important  gathering.  It  was 
doubtless  a  combination  of  all  the  exchanges  that  now  distribute 
themselves  in  several  palatial  buildings,  so  that  these  proud  institu- 
tions governing  the  markets  of  a  continent,  and  affecting  the  finances 
of  a  world,  may  all  look  to  this  humble  assembly  in  1669  as  the  begin- 
ning of  their  history. 

Two  more  undertakings  of  Lovelace  deserve  a  moment's  attention 
before  we  come  to  that  startling  event  which  ended  his  career  as 
Governor  altogether.  Not  satisfied  with  the  gubernatorial  residence 
which  Stuyvesant  had  built  on  the  water's  edge,  and  which  had  been 
quite  to  the  taste  of  Nicolls,  Lovelace  determined  to  revive  the  old 
fashion  of  residing  within  the  fort.  So  the  ancient  and  dilapidated 
edifice  there  was  renovated  at  a  heavy  expense;  but  residing  there, 
instead  of  the  magnificent  view  of  the  Upper  Bay  and  its  charm  of 
surrounding  scenery,  the  imprisoned  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  province 
could  enjoy  no  more  prospect  than  the  dull  walls  of  the  fort  afforded, 
unless  he  chose  to  climb  to  the  third  story  or  the  roof.  Yet  the  Gov- 
ernor's view  in  another  sense  embraced  and  appreciated  the  impor- 
tance of  that  section  of  Greater  New  York  called  Staten  Island. 
He  secured  its  entire  circuit  as  a  piece  of  personal  property  for  the 
t  Duke  by  purchase  from  the  Indians.  Four  hundred  fathoms  of  wam- 
pum, and  a  lot  of  axes,  kettles,  coats,  guns,  hoes,  knives,  sufficed  to 
complete  this  enrly  bargain  in  city  real  estate. 


G()  HISTORY  OF  TH E  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

Never  dreaming  thai  he  was  laying  his  hand  upon  the  extreme 
points  of  what  was  destined  to  be  one  great  city,  we  find  this  (Jov- 
ernor's  activity  and  interest  touching  other  sections  of  our  present 
Greater  New  York.  Out  at  Hempstead  Nicolls  had  established  a 
racecourse  upon  the  extensive  Salisbury  plain.  It  is  recorded  by 
more  than  one  authority  that  the  woods  were  overrun  with  wild 
horses  of  a  poor  breed,  small  of  stature  and  neither  strong  nor  tieet. 
A  racecourse  would  be  of  good  use  as  well  as  a  place  of  amusement, 
if  securing  the  improvement  of  this  breed.  Lovelace  encouraged 
the  scheme  as  much  as  Ins  predecessor,  appointing  the  month  of  May 
for  the  running  of  the  races,  and  continuing  the  offer  of  a  cup  as  a 
prize  for  the  winners.  Next  we  rind  him  at  Harlem,  earnestly  labor- 
ing to  prevail  upon  the  Council  and  Court  of  Assize,  whom  he  had 
summoned  together  at  that  distant  spot,  to  take  measures  for  con 
structing  a  wagon  road  from  the  city  below.  Could  it  have  been 
some  unexplained  provision,  too,  which  made  him  see  to  it  that  the 
northern  end  of  Manhattan  Island  should  be  in  communication  with 
the  "annexed  district"  above  Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek?  At  least  a 
solemn  agreement  was  entered  into  with  one  Johannes  Verveelen  to 
establish  a  ferry  here.  Perhaps  the  Lnfrequency  of  passengers  made 
his  terms  high.  A  few  years  later  one  of  those  he  paddled  over  in  his 
canoe  complains  that  he  charged  three  pence  per  person,  while  the 
ferriage  to  Brooklyn  cost  less  than  half  a  penny. 

The  English  conquest  had  checked  emigration  from  Holland.  And 
it  seems  that  English  settlers  found  other  parts  of  the  King's  domin- 
ion in  America  more  delectable  than  New  York  province.  Hence 

there  was  only  the  natural  increase  of 
population  for  the  city  below  Wall 
Street.  Its  commercial  activity  was 
also  not  remarkable.  W  hen  nine  or 
ten  vessels  were  in  port  in  1669  it  was 
thought  worthy  of  record  by  the  town 
annalists,  whoever  they  were.  Tin' 
three  Dutch  ships  per  year  for  seven 
years  from  lliti"  came  faithfully  ac- 
cording to  the  permission  obtained  by 
Stuyvesant,  and  small  coastwise 
traders  also  came  to  her  wharves,  or 
pushed  ii])  into  Hroad  Street  canal  t<> 
sell  vegetables  and  other  wares.  Per- 
haps Lovelace  lacked  some  of  that  en- 
ergy or  vigor  which  had  distinguished 
Nicolls.  ami  which  creates  confidence  and  encouragement  in  business 
enterprises.  Yet  surely  the  Governor's  various  plans  for  the  stimulus 
of  business  and  in  providing  facilities  of  intercourse  showed  that  he 
had  an  intelligent  conception  of  what  the  development  of  the  citv  re- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


07 


quired,  lie  was  also  assiduous  iu  bringing  out  the  social  possibilities 
of  life  iu  the  primitive  aud  isolated  community.  To  his  utter  astouish 
meut  he  found  as  good  breeding  among  these  colonists  of  Dutch  aud 
French  extraction  as  he  had  encountered  at  the  English  court.  He 
enjoyed,  therefore,  mingling  in  that  society,  and  instituted  a  club  of 
ten  French  and  Dutch  and  ten  English  families.  This  select  com- 
pany was  to  meet  in  rotation  at  each  other's  houses  twice  a  week  in 
winter  and  once  in  summer,  and  the  three  nationalities  represented 
freely  used  their  respective  vernaculars  as  occasion  served,  sure  of 
being  understood  by  all,  whatever  language  was  spoken.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  that  ladies  of  high  education  formed  a  part  of  this  circle.  We 
are  told  that  the  three  daughters  of  Anthony  De  Milt,  at  one  time 
Sheriff  of  the  city,  possessed  a  knowledge  of  Latin  superior  to  that  of 
the  Dutch  domine.  Perhaps  Mrs.  Stuyvesant  and  Mrs.  Bayard  were 
not  too  old  to  lend  attractiveness  to  this  circle  by  their  attainments 
and  accomplishments.  The  former  would  doubtless  often  be  at  the 
homes  of  her  sons  on  Broadway  in  the  winter  season. 

These  piping  times  of  peace  received  a  sudden  and  rude  interrup- 
tion. The  year  1072  was  a  year  of  terror  for  the  Dutch  Republic. 
Louis  XIV.,  of  France,  had  determined  to  crush  the  United  Provinces 
for  having  dared  to  interfere  with  his  schemes  to  secure  the  throne 
of  Spain  for  himself  or  his  heirs.  By  shameless  bribes  he  induced 
Charles  II.,  of  England,  to  join  in  the  nefarious  scheme  to  ruin  a 
nation,  not  only  now  friendly  to  himself  and  people,  but  who  had  suf- 
fered much  at  the  hands  of  Cromwell  for  harboring  him  in  his  days 
of  misfortune.  Having  tied  the  hands  of  all  possible  allies,  both  by 
sea  and  by  land,  Louis  poured  his  armies  across  the  borders  of  Hol- 
land and  penetrated  to  the  very  walls  of  Amsterdam,  where  a  deluged 
country  alone  checked  his  conquering  progress.  Meantime  violent 
dissensions  broke  out  among  the  citizens.  The  populace  rose  in 
wrath  against  John  De  Witt,  long  the  virtual  head  of  the  Republic, 
and  the  opponent  of  the  House  of  Orange,  and  this  statesman  and  his 
brother  Cornelius  were  torn  to  pieces  in  the  streets  of  The  Hague. 
Thus  restored  to  power,  the  Orange  faction,  with  the  astute  Prince 
William  Henry,  only  twenty-twro  years  of  age,  at  their  head,  took  con- 
trol of  affairs.  William  was  appointed  to  all  the  offices,  civil  and 
military,  which  his  fathers  had  held.  The  foe  was  defied;  the  Prince 
bravely  declaring  that  he  would  drown  the  whole  country  rather 
than  surrender.  One  after  another  ally  of  France  dropped  away  from 
the  iniquitous  compact,  and  the  Grand  Monarch  was  gradually 
forced  to  retire.  Meanwhile  the  Dutch  fleets  under  De  Ruyter  and 
Tromp  had  meted  out  condign  punishment  to  French  and  English 
alike.  They  swept  the  seas  victorious  far  and  wide.  One  squadron 
w'as  dispatched  to  the  West  Indies.  Secret  instructions  were  given 
to  the  commanders,  to  be  opened  only  at  sea.  In  these  appeared  a 
cipher  number,  163,  which,  on  consulting  the  key,  was  found  to  mean 


68 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


New  Netherland.  After  doing  ;is  much  damage  as  possible  along  the 
coast  of  Virginia,  the  Dutch  admirals  were  to  see  what  could  be  doue 
in  the  way  of  recapturing  the  former  province  of  New  Netherland, 
thus  wiping  out  the  disgrace  of  its  capture. 

The  plan  of  campaign  bore  fruit.  On  .July  29,  1G73,  Admirals 
Evertsen  and  Binc'kes  and  their  licet,  with  sixteen  prizes  under  con- 
voy, anchored  off  Sandy  Hook.  They  had  been  informed  of  the  true 
state  of  affairs  in  New  York  by  some  of  the  passengers  in  the  cap- 
tured ships.  The  Narrows  were  entered  unmolested,  and  the  next 
anchorage  ground  selected  was  in  the  North  River  within  easy  gun- 
shot of  the  fort.  Governor  Lovelace  being  away  on  an  errand  regard- 
ing his  postal  route  to  New  England,  Captain  John  Manning  w  as  in 
command  at  the  fort.  He  had  not  more  than  forty  soldiers.  Calling 
the  citizen-guard  under  arms,  he  found  that  the  four  hundred  men 
composing  it  were  determined  not  to  raise  a  linger  in  defense  of  the 
town  against  their  countrymen.  They  had  been  willing  to  try  Eng- 
lish rule  as  an  antidote  to  Stuyvesant;  but  they  had  had  enough  of  it 
now  to  wish  a  return  to  the  rule  of  the  Fatherland.  All  this  time  the 
Dutch  admirals  were  waiting  for  a  reply  to  their  summons  to  surren- 
der. Manning  wanted  twelve  hours  to  deliberate;  the  admirals  gave 
him  only  half  an  hour.  They  told  him  "  they  had  come  for  their  oavu, 
and  their  own  they  would  have."  Getting  no  answer,  Evertsen  acted 
with  characteristic  promptness.  A  broadside  or  two  was  poured  into 
the  fort,  which  responded  feebly  with  a  few  shots.  But  in  the  mean 
time  a  large  force  of  marines,  under  Captain  Anthony  Colve,  had 
landed  at  the  foot  of  Rector  Street.  They  marched  up  the  hill  to 
Broadway,  and  then  turned  to  attack  the  fort  at  its  gate  fronting  the 
Bowling  Green.  Ere  they  got  so  far,  however,  an  offer  to  capitulate 
met  them.  The  garrison  was  allowed  to  march  out  with  the  honors 
of  war,  and  was  then  compelled  to  march  in  again  and  held  prisoners 
in  the  church  until  they  could  be  dispatched  to  Holland.  The  tri- 
color of  the  Republic  was  run  up  over  the  fort,  and  the  province 
robbed  in  time  of  peace  almost  exactly  nine  years  before,  was  re- 
covered by  fair  act  of  war,  by  superior  skill  and  address. 

Provisional  government  arrangements  were  made  by  the  two  ad- 
mirals. Captain  Anthony  Colve  was  made  Governor  of  the  recovered 
province,  until  regular  appointments  could  be  made  by  the  authori- 
ties at  home.  Albany  was  reduced  and  called  Willemstad;  the  always 
recalcitrant  Long  Islanders  were  made  to  feel  what  Dutchmen  were 
like  who  went  across  the  world  to  capture  hostile  fleets  and  conquer 
enemies'  colonies.  And  when  all  was  brought  into  a  satisfactory  state 
of  submissiveness,  (he  squadron  departed  with  its  prizes  to  announce 
its  achievement  lo  the  Stales-General. 

The  old  name  of  the  city  was  not  restored:  it  was  now  called  New  . 
Orange;  and  the  Dutch  form  of  city  government  was  immediately 
set  up  again,  Three  Burgomasters  were  appointed,  Johannes  Van 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


69 


ADMIRAL  CORNELIS  EVERTSEN. 


Brugh,  Johannes  De  Peyster,  and  JEgidius  Luyck.  The  latter  was 
the  discharged  tutor  of  Stuyvesant's  day.  Whether  by  teaching  or 
in  some  other  way  he  had  managed  to  prosper  in  the  new  settlement, 
for  not  only  was  he  now  raised  to  this  prominent  position,  but  his 
wealth  was  estimated  at  5,000  guilders,  a  no  inconsiderable  fortune 
for  that  day,  when  the  wealthiest  man  was  put  down  at  only  80,000 
guilders.  Antony  De  Milt  was  made  Schout  or  Sheriff.  As  usual 
the  people  had  no  voice  in  these  selections,  and  they  were  taxed 
heavily  to  put  and  keep  in  repair  the  defenses  of  the  city.  Colve 
acted  in  all  this  as  a  military  man  rather  than  a  civilian,  but  the  con- 
dition of  affairs  warranted  his  proceedings.  By  the  fortunes  of  war, 
New  Orange  had  come  into  the  hands  of  its  present  masters,  and,  as 
war  was  still  raging,  reprisal  might  at  any  time  be  looked  for.  Be- 
sides. Colve  acted  as  the  direct  representative  of  the  National  Gov- 


70 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


eminent.  New  Amsterdam  had  been  subject  to  the  West  India  Com- 
pany; New  Orange  was  subject  to  the  States-General  of  the  Repub- 
lic. It  was  not  proposed  to  give  back  to  the  Company  its  former 
possession.  Indeed,  the  Company  was  no  longer  in  condition  to  re- 
ceive it.  It  had  been  so  dependent  upon  war  for  its  profits,  that  as  the 
Eighty  Years'War  came  to  a  close,  as  Portugal  regained  its  independ- 
ence from  Spain,  and  there  were  no  more  silver  fleets  to  Capture  or 
Brazilian  provinces  to  exploit,  its  profits  fell  off.  Finally  its  liabili- 
ties exceeded  its  assets  by  more  than  five  millions  of  florins;  various 
schemes  were  proposed  and  tried  to  save  it  from  bankruptcy  or  disso- 
lution, but  none  availed  to  ward  off  disaster.  In  1673  it  was  prac- 
tically extinct,  but  it  was  not  till  1G74  that  it  was  officially  dissolved. 
So  New  Orange  was  held  for  the  Prince  after  whom  it  was  named, 
and  no  dilly-dallying  merchants  at  home  were  to  be  consulted  about 
the  fortifications.  The  people  were  lustily  taxed  to  their  utmost 
ability  after  a  careful  list  had  been  prepared  expressing  that  ability. 
Buildings  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  were  removed  so  as  not  to  ob- 
struct the  range  of  its  guns.  A  formidable  array  of  these  of  brass 
and  iron  was  supplied  from  the  departing  fleet,  and  any  foe  who  had 
presumed  to  summon  Fort  William  Henry  to  surrender  would  have 
met  with  a  very  hot  response  in  the  negative. 

But  there  Avas  to  be  no  surrender  again,  only  a  friendly  transfer. 
Early  in  1674,  perhaps  before  the  parties  engaged  in  negotiation  had 
heard  the  news  from  America,  Holland  and  England  concluded  the 
Peace  of  Westminster,  detaching  the  English  King  from  his  unnat- 
ural alliance  with  France  against  a  kindred  nation.  By  the  terms  of 
this  peace  all  conquests  on  either  side  were  to  be  restored.  As  Hol- 
land had  not  lost  Surinam  while  England  was  losing  New  York,  the 
bargain  of  Breda  was  still  in  force,  and  the  restoration  of  New  Neth- 
erland  was  counted  a  small  loss  as  long  as  the  southern  possession 
was  safe.  No  doubt  rejoicing  on  his  part,  that  his  Province  of  New 
York  w  as  again  his,  the  Duke  of  York  appointed  Edmund  Andros  as 
its  Governor.  On  October  22,  1<>74,  the  latter  arrived  inside  the  Nar- 
rows with  two  frigates,  and  anchored  there  to  await  the  action  of  the 
Dutch  authorities.  The  formalities  of  the  transfer  were  conducted 
with  the  utmost  friendliness  and  courtesy.  First  the  English  (Gov- 
ernor received  graciously  Burgomasters  Steenwyck  and  Van  Brugh. 
and  Schepen  William  Beekman,  on  board  his  frigate,  and  assured 
them  that  the  privileges  or  guaranties  for  the  Hutch  citizens  which 
nev  solicited  would  be  freely  granted.  On  November  !»  Governor 
Oolve  met  the  Burgomasters,  Schepens,  and  Schout  at  the  City  Hall, 
and  discharged  them  of  their  oaths  to  the  Dutch  Government,  an- 
nouncing that  on  the  morrow  the  keys  of  the  city  and  the  command 
of  the  Province  would  by  him  be  tendered  to  the  Governor  sent  out 

by  the  Duke  of  York.  Thus  on  November  10,  lf>74,  after  one  year  ami 
three  months  exactly  of  the  old  familiar  Dutch  rule,  New  York  for 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


71 


the  second  time  became  an  English  city,  to  remain  so  until  independ- 
ence made  it  finally  and  permanently  American,  owning  no  man 
master  across  the  seas. 

While  Andros  was  still  aboard  ship  in  the  bay,  as  a  result  of  the 
visit  of  the  three  prominent  Dutch  citizens  aforesaid,  he  issued  a  proc- 
lamation to  set  at  rest  any  fears  that  might  be  felt  regarding  his  inten- 
tions toward  people  of  that  nationality.  They  wrere  to  occupy  an  equal 
footing  with  the  English  in  all  matters  of  right  or  privilege.  It  was 
distinctly  stated  in  this  paper  that  "  all  former  grants,  privileges,  or 
concessions,  heretofore  granted,  and  also  all  legal  and  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, during  the  late  Dutch  government,  are  hereby  confirmed." 
Debts  contracted  during  the  occupancy  of  the  Dutch  could  not  be 
disallowed  now,  and  people  who  owned  property  or  acquired  it  then, 
could  not  be  dispossessed.  Even  Dutch  forms  and  ceremonies  were 
to  be  respected,  just  as  Mcolls  promised  in  the  Articles  of  Capitula- 
tion. But  Andros  kept  his  word  better  as  to  the  titles  of  property 
than  did  his  predecessor.  Yet  there  wras  more  trouble  than  before 
about  the  taking  of  the  oath  of  allegiance.  On  March  13,  1675,  all 
citizens  were  required  to  repair  to  the  Town  Hall  to  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Crown  of  England,  the  one  formerly  taken  being  in- 
validated by  the  interruption  of  English  rule  under  Colve.  This 
seemed  reasonable  enough;  but  the  citizens  conceived  the  fear  that 
the  freedom  of  religion  might  be  threatened  by  the  new  oath,  and  it 
certainly  would  imply  that  at  some  time  or  other  they  might  be  called 
upon  to  bear  arms  against  the  mother  country.  And  they  claimed 
that  the  re-taking  of  the  oath  wras  unnecessary,  as  the  capitulation 
with  Xicolls  in  1664  was  confirmed  by  the  peace  of  Westminster,  and 
unless  the  oath  expressly  saved  them  from  either  of  the  above  contin- 
gencies it  would  be  a  violation  of  that  peace.  But  Andros  did  not  like 
this  opposition.  It  smacked  too  much  of  a  liability  on  the  part  of 
these  influential  Dutchmen  to  repeat  their  conduct  in  refusing  to 
fight  against  Evertsen  and  Colve,  should  another  such  emergency 
arise.  He  refused  to  attach  a  condition  or  promise  to  the  oath  to  be 
taken.  Then  followed  proceedings  of  a  determined  nature  on  both 
sides.  Sheriff  Antony  De  Milt,  ex-Burgomasters  Van  Brugh,  De 
Peyster,  and  Luyck,  Schepens  William  Beekman  and  Jacob  Kip,  ex- 
Mayor  Steenwyck,  and  Secretary  ^Nicholas  Bayard,  signed  a  petition 
asking  to  be  "  exempted  from  taking  an  unconditional  oath,"  or  else 
to  be  permitted  "  to  dispose  of  their  estates  and  remove,  with  their 
families,  out  of  the  colony."  This  was  taking  a  tone  which  the  Gov- 
ernor resolved  to  rebuke  with  vigor.  He  cast  all  of  the  eight  petition- 
ers into  prison  as  the  instigators  of  rebellion.  De  Peyster  was  the 
first  to  yield  under  this  vigorous  treatment;  the  others  stood  trial  and 
were  convicted  of  violating  an  Act  of  Parliament  "  in  having  traded 
without  taking  the  oath."  But  they  were  released  on  bail,  and  finally 
were  wise  enough  to  submit  to  the  undoubted  right  in  the  matter, 


72 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


swearing  allegiance  to  the  power  whose  subjects  they  now  were.  To 
plainly  intimate  that  they  would  not  tight  for  the  sovereign  against 
any  specified  nation  was  to  leave  the  way  open  to  treason  or  desertion 
should  war  ever  occur  w  ith  that  nation. 

The  Dutch  citizens  having  had  their  say,  there  was  next  a  demon- 
stration from  the  Englishmen.  They  did  not  like  the  hc;.\  \  taxes 
and  partial  confiscations  which  had  come  upon  them  as  the  result  of 
the  surrender  of  the  town  to  the  Dutch.  Governor  Lovelace  had 
been  punished  by  disgrace  and  confiscation  on  his  return  to  England, 
and  Captain  Manning  was  only  saved  from  the  same  fate  by  the  sen- 
sible view  which  King  Charles  look  of  the  situation.  Forty  soldiers 
and  a  dilapidated  fort,  with  four  hundred  armed  citizens  behind  him 
ready  to  back  the  enemy  rather  than  himself,  left  Manning  in  a  quite 
hopeless  condition  before  fifteen  grim  Dutch  warships  carrying  six- 
teen hundred  fighting  men.  lint  on  Manning's  return  to  New  York, 
William  Dervall,  just  appointed  Mayor,  and  a  man  of  wealth  and  in- 
fluence, induced  several  citizens  to  join  him  in  formal  charges  of 
"  neglect  of  duty,  cowardice,  and  treachery."  The  case  was  so  clear 
in  his  favor,  even- without  sworn  depositions  showing  the  defenseless- 
ness  of  his  position  before  the  enemy,  and  these  when  brought  for- 
ward were  so  strongly  corroborative  of  the  obvious  facts,  that  it 
seems  incredible  any  verdict  at  all  should  have  been  brought  against 
the  Captain.  What  is  to  be  thought  then  of  a  sentence  of  death? 
This  outrage  upon  justice  was  averted,  but  Manning  was  declared 
forever  incapacitated  from  holding  office  either  military  or  civil.  He 
managed  to  live  in  comfort,  however,  and  even  to  acquire  wealth  in 
the  colony.  He  owned  Blackwell's  island,  and  went  to  dwell  upon  it 
and  cultivate  it.  After  his  death  it  fell  to  his  daughter  Mary,  who 
had  married  Robert  Blackwell,  and  hence  the  name  which  still  at- 
taches to  the  island.  It  is  a  little  curious  that  a  man  who  had  under- 
gone a  criminal  procedure  and  had  but  just  escaped  execution,  how- 
ever innocent,  should  have  been  the  first  to  be  prominently  identified 
with  this  island  in  history,  and  to  have  in  a  manner  exiled  himself  to 
it. 

No  governor  that  New  York  ever  had  was  more  personally  active  in 
securing  the  improvement  of  the  city's  appearance,  of  its  sanitary 
conditions,  of  its  safety  and  its  commercial  interests,  than  Governor 
Andros.  He  went  about  the  streets  marking  this  or  that  defect  in 
buildings,  or  observing  what  would  threaten  health,  or  where  the 
defenses  needed  strengthening.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the 
prominent  Dutchmen  already  noted,  he  yet  gratified  the  feelings  of 
the  people  of  that  nationality  by  allowing  the  Burgomasters  to  re- 
main in  office  until  their  term  expired  on  February  12.  1(17.").  Then  Will- 
iam Dervall  was  appointed  Mayor.  But  in  1070  Andros  appointed 
Nicholas  De  Meyer,  rated  worth  50,000  florins  on  the  tax  list  drawn 
up  for  Oolve  in  1071.    ITe  was  bom  in  Holland  and  had  married  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


73 


daughter  of  Ensign  Henry  van  Dyck,  who  won  fame  in  Kieft's  Indian 
wars.  One  of  his  daughters  married  Philip  Schuyler,  of  Albany. 
Blinding  that  the  town  records  were  kept  in  a  loose  and  irregular 
manner  at  Secretary  Bayard's  private  residence  in  Beaver  Street  (be- 
tween Broad  and  William,  once  called  the  Prince-gracht  and  then  1  tie 
Smith  Street  Lane),  Andros  insisted  that  they  be  taken  to  the  City 
Hall  and  kept  there  in 
as  safe  a  place  as  those 
times  afforded.  As  the 
records  now  under  the 
city's  care  reach  back 
to  lli47,  it  is  apparent 
that  this  place  of  safety 
was  sufficient  for  their 
p  r  e  s  e  r  v  ation.  The 
"  train  bands,'1  or  citi- 
zen soldiery,  were  or- 
ganized into  regular 
companies,    and    steps  the  stkand,  now  Whitehall  street. 

taken  to  improve  their 

marksmanship.  Such  as  had  guns  (for  all  were  not  thus  provided) 
were  directed  to  keep  them  loaded  in  the  house. 

It  was  under  Andros,  and  as  a  result  of  his  intelligent  comprehen- 
sion of  the  city's  needs,  that  the  important  matter  of  street  cleaning 
began  to  receive  attention.  Heaps  of  garbage  had  been  allowed  to  ac- 
cumulate indifferently  in  places  most  convenient.  Now  every  house- 
holder was  made  responsible  for  the  state  of  the  street  in  front  of  his 
house  and  yard,  and  the  garbage  that  would  otherwise  gather  was 
carried  away  in  carts,  as  it  is  to-day.  The  canal  in  Broad  Street  not 
being  so  much  of  an  ornament  as  it  might  be,  and  proving  a  decideu 
nuisance  when  the  tanners  began  to  empty  their  vats  in  it,  the  tan- 
ners were  removed  to  their  present  "  swamp,"  still  malodorous  as  the 
leather  district,  and  the  canal  itself,  spite  of  all  its  loving  reminis- 
cences of  old  Amsterdam,  was  filled  up,  so  that  a  truly  "  broad 
street "  has  ever  since  been  the  result.  To  utilize  the  flow  of  water 
beneath,  so  far  as  it  was  the  result  of  natural  springs,  and  to  have 
large  reservoirs  of  water  always  on  hand  in  case  of  fire,  four  wells 
were  dug  in  the  center  of  this  street  on  the  line  of  the  former  canal. 
Two  similar  wells  or  reservoirs,  boarded  over,  but  readily  uncovered, 
were  provided  on  Broadway,  one  to  the  south,  and  one  just  north  of 
Exchange  Place;  and  at  the  same  time  this  thoroughfare  was  care- 
fully laid  out  as  a  road  or  street  as  far  as  the  later  Commons,  or  still 
later  City  Hall  Park.  A  seventh  well  was  located  in  Wall  Street,  at 
the  intersection  with  the  present  William,  then  Smith  Street . 

"  Markets  and  market  days  were  and  are  a  great  feature  of  every 
Dutch  town.    Andros,  in  seeing  to  tliis  particular,  must  have  again 


74 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


greatly  pleased  his  Dutch  citizens.  Broad  Street,  where  the  bridge 
had  been,  received  a  market  house  of  primitive  design;  but  the  Bpace 
before  the  fort,  now  Bowling  Green,  was  also,  as  in  Stuyvesaut's  day, 
used  for  the  display  of  vegetables,  or  meat,  or  fruit,  or  live  cattle,  and 
game  and  poultry.  The  space  now  known  as  Hanover  Square  was 
another  spot  thus  utilized.  Saturday  was  market  day,  wh<ti  people 
came  over  from  Brouckelen  and  Communipaw  to  sell  provisions  to 
the  city  folk.  We  know  at  least  of  one  Communipaw  farmer  who 
sold  his  mutton  in  1679  for  three  cents  (Dutch,  or  1  1-5  cents  U.  S.) 
per  pound.  This,  with  rent  for  a  good  house  only  $14  per  annum, 
kept  one's  household  expenses  within  a  very  moderate  figure.  The 
liquor  traffic  was  a  sore  puzzle  for  this  ancient  New  York,  as  it  is  for 
the  modern.  Rough  times  were  had  at  taverns,  and  especially  was 
great  mischief  done  by  the  illegal  sidling  of  rum  to  the  insatiable 
Indians.  The  Governor  had  a  map  of  the  little  city  prepared  to  indi- 
cate the  location  of  the  dram  shops,  and  it  was  found  that  nearly  a 
quarter  of  the  houses  offered  for  sale  brandy,  tobacco,  and  beer.  It 
was  attempted  to  regulate  the  retail  traffic  by  licenses,  but  the  ordi- 
nance was  evaded  to  a  sad  extent.  Andros  could  do  no  more  to  stop 
such  business  than  the  most  rigorous  police  commissioner  of  the 
present  day.  lie  caused  an  act  to  be  passed  which  provided  that  if 
a  red  man  or  a  white  were  seen  intoxicated  in  any  street,  and  there 
were  taverns  on  it  land  there  were  few  where  t  here  were  none), the  en- 
tire street  should  be  fined,  unless  the  precise  tavern  where  hi'  got  his 
liquor  could  be  pointed  out.  Yet  it  is  strange  to  note  how  many  re- 
spectable persons  were  brewers  and  kept  taverns.  Ex-Burgomaster 
van  Cortlandt,  and  very  likely  his  son  Stephanas,  who  was  made 
.Mayor  in  1(>77 — the  first  native  of  New  York  to  hold  the  position- 
were  brewers.  Nicholas  Bayard  was  a  brewer.  So  also  was  a  very  in- 
teresting personality,  -lean  Vigne",  who,  in  1679,  at  the  age  of  65 
years,  was  mentioned  to  visitors  as  the  first  white  male  child  born 
in  New  Netherland.  Thus  he  must  have  been  born  in  Kill,  very  likely 
at  Fort  Orange  or  Albany,  of  parents  who  had  come  from  Valen- 
ciennes, now  in  France,  then  one  of  the  Belgian  provinces.  He  was  a 
man  of  eminent  respectability  and  good  means,  his  wealth  put  down 
at  2,r>00  florins.  Yet  he  kept  a  tavern  in  connection  with  his  brewery, 
in  the  Smith's  Valley  (now  Pearl  Street,  between  Wall  and  Franklin 
Square),  facing  the  river,  and  on  Sunday  afternoons  there  were  lively 
times  in  his  beer-shop.  None  the  less  were  he  and  his  wife  members 
in  good  and  regular  standing  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  0 
tempora,  0  mores!  Mow  the  times  do  change,  and  the  manners  with 
them! 

Again,  at  t  he  instance  of  the  <  iovernor,  a  wharf  was  built,  reaching 
from  the  corner  of  Whitehall  and  State  to  a  point  opposite  the  City 
Hall  at  the  head  of  Coenties  Slip.  Intending  to  promote  the  pros- 
perity of  t  he  city  by  an  increase  of  trade,  Andros  allowed  trading  ves- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


75 


sels  to  freely  pass  up  the  river,  to  get  peltries  from  the  Indians  in 
the  interior.  But  this  did  not  suit  the  protective  ideas  of  that  time. 
The  Duke  of  York  forbade  such  liberal  policy,  and  even  vessels  from 
New  England  and  other  colonies  were  compelled  to  stop  at  New  York 
and  make  their  purchases  of  peltries  there.  The  result  was,  of  course, 
that  they  "  stopped  "  somewhere  else.  The  fishing  industry  was  one 
much  in  vogue  in  that  day,  and  it  is  stated  that  whales  were 
caught  in  New  York  Bay.  It  was  under  Andros,  too,  that  the  monop- 
oly of  bolting  flour  was  granted  to  the  city  in  1(>79.   Some  years  later, 


under  Dongan,  the  monopoly  was  extended  so  as  to  embrace  not  only 
bolting,  but  also  packing,  and  the  export  of  bread.  During  the  period 
that  this  monopoly  was  in  force  the  shipping  visiting  the  port  in- 
creased from  three  to  sixty  vessels,  and  over  six  hundred  houses  were 
built,  while  real  estate  values  increased  to  ten  times  their  former 
status.  The  currency,  which  had  been  the  despair  of  Stuyvesant,  also 
tempted  Andros  to  deal  with  it  and  correct  it.  But  it  proved  as  diffi- 
cult  a  subject  for  him  as  for  his  predecessor  or  his  successors  in  au- 
thority at  the  present  day.  The  flat  money,  and  mutilated  depreci- 
ated bead-coins,  were  hard  to  get  out  of  the  way;  the  honest  efforts 
of  the  Governor,  on  the  old  plan  of  rigorously  fixing  values  for  certain 
amounts  of  the  wampum,  only  made  the  confusion  worse  confounded. 


76 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


He  received  nothing  but  reprimands  from  the  Duke  for  his  pains,  and 
his  recall  perhaps  grew  out  of  this  very  matter.  It  was  not  till  Will- 
iam the  III.'s  day,  and  after  the  combined  genius  of  Locke  and  New- 
ton had  dealt  with  the  question,  that  the  problem  of  replacing  de- 
based currency  by  genuine  coin  was  solved  in  England. 

As  we  approachtho  important  epoch  in  the  city's  history  when  it 
received  its  first  charter,  when  it  was  hud  out  into  wards,  and  in  every 
way  became  ;i  thoroughly  English  municipality,  let  us  take  a  survey 
of  what  the  city  then  looked  like,  and  observe  some  of  the  phases  of 
every-day  life  in  it.  Among  the  results  of  Andres's  personal  efforts 
to  improve  the  city,  the  houses  that  were  put  up  became  increasingly 
handsome  or  substantial.  The  Dutch  clung  tenaciously  to  the  style 
so  prevalent  in  the  mother  country — crow-stepped  gables,  fronting 
on  the  street.  Some  houses  (often  with  the  dates  worked  in  iron 
braces  among  the  bricks)  rose  to  the  height  of  three  stories.  Others 
of  less  elevation  were  picturesque,  with  roofs  rising  to  sharp  ridges 
and  curving  down  tot  he  low  eaves,  dormer  windows  breaking  the  mo- 
notony of  the  long  slope.  But  most  of  the  houses  were  still  very  small, 
their  triangular  gables  facing  the  street,  in  (dose  ranks,  resembling 
the  teeth  of  a  gigantic  saw.  AYhen  a  severe  rain  storm  prevailed  for 
a  number  of  hours,  it  was  often  complained  that  not  a  dry  place  to  lie 
down  in  could  be  found  in  some  of  these.  Men  like  Steenwyck,  or 
Van  Cortlandt,  built  broad  mansions  of  I  wo  or  three  stories  high,  and 
these  were  comfortably  and  even  elegantly  furnished.  An  inventory 
of  Steenwyck's  property  after  his  death  in  1684  reveals  the  fad  that 
his  woonJcamer,  or  living  room,  contained  "  twelve  rush  leather  chairs, 
two  velvet  chairs  with  fine  silver  lace,  one  cupboard  of  French  nut- 
wood, one  round  table,  one  square  table,  a  cabinet,  thirteen  pictures, 
a  large  looking-glass,  five  alabaster  images,  a  piece  of  tapestry  work 
for  cushions,  a  flowered  tabby  chimney-cloth,  a  pair  of  flowered  tabby 
window  curtains,  a  dressing  box,  a  carpet."  Almost  every  house  of 
consequence  had  an  ample  garden  back  of  it,  or  around  it,  and  no  gar- 
den was  without  its  orchard.  The  apples  were  the  admiration  of  peo- 
ple fresh  from  Europe;  some  of  them  so  large  that  fifty-six  of  them 
would  fill  up  a  bushel  basket.  Peaches  were  so  plentiful  in  city  and 
country  that  they  lay  rotting  in  the  roads,  the  very  pigs  being  satiated 
with  the  plenty  of  them.  Grapes  too  seemed  to  have  been  abun- 
dant and  of  good  quality.  Perhaps  it  w  as  due  to  these  vines,  or  others 
like  them,  growing  wild  in  the  woods,  that  it  was  recorded  by  tourists 
who  visited  every  part  of  Manhattan  Island  and  vicinity  in  K>70  that 
"in  passing  1  hrough  the  island  there  was  some!  Lines  encountered  such 
a  sweet  smell  in  the  air  that  we  stood  still,  because  we  did  not  know 
what  it  was  we  were  meeting."  They  found  too  t  hat  alt  hough  all  the 
land  on  the  island  was  taken  up  by  owners,  yet  a  large  part  was  not  as 
yet  under  cultivation.  The  rich  merchants  or  brewers  in  the  city  usu- 
ally invested  in  the  purchase  of  large  tracts,  to  be  reserved  for  later 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


77 


generations.  Richest  of  all  these  was  Frederick  Philipse,  rated  at 
80,000  florins  in  1074;  Steenwyck  and  De  Meyer  came  next,  each 
with  50,000  to  his  name;  then  there  was  Oloff  van  Cortlandt  with 
45,000,  ex-Mayor  John  Lawrence  with  40, (Mill,  and  Jerome  Kb- 
bingh,  last  of  the  "  very  rich,"  with  a  rating  of  30,000.  At  the  same 
time  there  was  then  no  squalid  and  suffering  poverty;  Andros  Avas 
able  to  inform  his  master  in  1078,  "  there  are  no  beggers  in  the  city, 
but  all  the  poor  are  cared  for." 

An  attempt  to  reach  various  parts  of  the  present  great  corpora 
tion  Avas  attended  in  those  days 
with  considerable  expenditure 
of  time  and  physical  exertion. 
You  could  go  to  Harlem  on  foot 
or  horseback,  for  the  "  wagon 
road  "  had  not  yet  materialized 
to  any  comfortable  degree.  If 
you  walked  it  would  take  three 
hours  of  an  easy  pace,  and  this 
was  lovingly  remembered  by 
the  Dutchmen  as  the  exact  time 
it  took  to  walk  from  the  old 
Amsterdam  to  the  old  Harlem 
at  home.  You  would  leave  by 
the  "  land  gate  "  at  Wall  Street  and  Broadway,  and  in  the  immediate 
suburbs  you  would  find  huddling  alongside  the  road  little  wretched 
cabins.  Here  lived  a  colony  of  negroes  who  had  been  slaves  owned  by 
the  West  India  Company,  but  who  in  the  course  of  the  vicissitudes  of 
its  fortunes  and  of  those  of  the  city  had  become  free  in  some  way. 
Negroes  in  plenty,  however,  were  held  as  slaves  in  the  city,  every 
household  having  a  goodly  number  of  such  servants.  Governo 
Andros  had  strictly  forbidden  anyone  holding  Indians  as  slaves. 
But  we  are  on  our  way  to  Harlem,  through  woods  and  wilds. 
It  is  now  a  "  tolerably  large "  village,  and  rejoices  in  a  house 
of  entertainment.  If  we  wish  to  go  to  Brooklyn,  there  is  the  ferry 
at  the  place  where  nature  suggested.  It  was  farmed  out  by  the 
year,  and  brought  a  good  income,  for  Long  Island  was  populous, 
and  the  people  always  had  plenty  of  things  to  come  over  to 
New  York  with  to  sell.  It  cost  3  stivers  seawan,  or  6  coats 
Dutch  (2  2-5  cents  U.  S.)  per  person  to  cross  over;  but  somehow, 
by  reason  of  the  incalculable  values  of  the  Indian  bead-coins,  the  ex- 
pense would  really  be  less  than  half  a  penny  of  our  present  money.  If 
the  wind  favored,  a  sail  was  set,  else  the  laborious  oar  moved  the 
clumsy  craft  at  a  snail's  pace  across.  The  roads  on  Long  Island  were 
such  that  you  could  be  taken  from  town  to  town  in  a  wagon,  but  walk- 
ing was  more  frequently  indulged  in.  If  you  had  it  in  mind  to  go  to 
the  Staten  Island  section  of  Greater  New  York,  your  best  way  was  to 


OLD  NEW  YORK  HOUSES. 


78 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


•  loss  the  ferry  to  Brooklyn,  not  too  late  in  the  day.  walk  or  ride  to 
(low  anus,  and  spend  the  night  there.  Then  starting  very  early  the 
next  morning,  three  hours  or  more  would  take  you  across  to  your  des- 
tination. 

Wo  now  conic  upon  the  memorable  epoch  in  the  city's  history,  when 
New  York,  much  be-chartered  since,  went  through  its  tirsr  experi- 
ence of  that  kind.  The  tirst  charter  w  as  granted  when  Thomas  Don- 
gan  was  Governor  of  the  Province.  His  advent  was  auspicious  in 
other  ways.  He  came  with  instructions  to  allow  the  people  in  their 
various  towns  to  elect  representatives  to  a  General  Assembly,  which 
wras  to  constitute  a  sort  of  Lower  House,  with  the  Governor's  Council 
as  the  Upper  House  of  Legislation,  the  Governor  acting  as  the 
sovereign,  to  approve  or  veto  the  bills  passed.  The  Assembly 
was  to  meet  once  in  three  years  at  least,  and  to  number  not 
more  than  eighteen  members.  Its  tirst  meeting  was  held  Octo- 
ber 17,  1683,  in  New  York  City,  with  Matthias  Nicoll,  of  the 
city,  as  speaker.  The  famous  "  Charter  of  Liberties  and  Privi- 
leges "  was  passed  by  it,  which  simply  put  into  the  form  of  one 
of  its  own  laws  the  instructions  of  the  Duke  which  had  called 
it  into  being.  As  an  obvious  concomitant  to  representation,  the 
province  needed  to  be  divided  into  counties,  and  this  was  done 
by  the  first  Assembly.  Twelve  counties  were  carefully  defined: 
New  York,  Westchester,  Richmond,  Kings,  Queens,  Suffolk,  Dutchess 
(or  Duchess),  Orange,  Ulster,  and  Albany.  The  other  two  counties 
lay  quite  outside  the  present  limits  of  our  state;  one  was  Duke's 
County,  embracing  Nantucket,  Martha's  Vineyard,  Elizabeth's  Isl- 
and, and  No  Man's  Land;  the  other,  Cornwall  County,  lying  away  up 
in  Maine,  comprising  Pemaquid  and  adjacent  territories.  It  is  of  im- 
portance also  to  notice  here  that  the  same  assembly  created  much 
needed  courts  of  justice.  These  were  of  four  classes:  Town  Courts. 
County  Courts,  a  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer,  and  a  Court  of  ("hate 
eery,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Province,  and  consisting  of  the  Gover- 
nor and  Council;  there  was  allowed,  however,  an  appeal  from  the  lat- 
ter to  the  King. 

As  upon  his  assumption  of  the  governorship  Dongan  read  to  the 
assembled  citizens  in  front  of  the  City  Hall  on  Coenties  Slip  his  in- 
structions, some  of  New  York's  leading  men  took  notice  that  among 
them  was  one  requiring  the  Governor  "  to  consider  and  report  upon 
the  propriety  of  granting  to  New  York  City  immunities  and  privi- 
leges beyond  what  other  parts  of  my  territory  do  enjoy."  Before 
three  months  had  passed  a  petition  came  before  Dongan.  signed  by 
Cornelius  Steenwyck,  Johannes  van  Brugh,  John  Lawrence.  John  IV 
Morris,  James  Graham,  and  Nicholas  Bayard.  It  recited  the  fact  that 
the  city  had  been  incorporated  under  the  present  English  form  in 
1665,  and  now  begged  that  to  "the  ancient  customs,  privileges,  and 
immunities"  might  be  added  certain  others.    They  asked  for  a  divi- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


79 


sion  of  the  city  into  wards,  from  which  aldermen  and  assistant-alder- 
men might  be  elected  by  the  people  therein  residing.  While  1 1n- 
mayor  and  sheriff  and  clerk  should  be  appointed  as  before  by  Gover- 
nor and  Council,  they  desired  added  to  the  officers  a  recorder  and  a 
coroner,  also  thus  appointed;  but  that  the  corporation  itself  might 
select  their  own  treasurer.  Finally,  they  petitioned  that  these  privi- 
leges and  immunities  be  elaborated  in  a  charter  regularly  signed  and 
sealed  by  the  sovereign,  thus  to  be  confirmed  in  perpetuity,  as  was 
the  custom  in  England. 

Demurring  at  first,  Dongan  very  soon  acceded  to  the  desires  of  the 
petitioners.  He  had  already  appointed  the  mayor  and  aldermen  for 
1683;  but  in  the  autumn  of  1684  he  appointed  only  the  Mayor,  Gabriel 
Minvielle,  while  aldermen  and  assistants  were  for  the  first  time 
elected  by  the  people.  James  Graham  was  appointed  Recorder  in 
December,  1683.  In  order  to  enable  the  election  to  take  place,  the 
city  had  been  divided  by  the  previous  mayor  and  aldermen  into  six 
wards.  The  first,  or  South  Ward,  began  at  the  river,  and  its  bound- 
ary ran  along  the  west  side  of  Broad  Street  to  Beaver;  west  along 
Beaver  to  Bowling  Green;  south  past  the  fort  to  Pearl;  east  along 
the  river  to  starting  point.  The  second,  or  Dock  Ward,  extended 
from  the  river  at  corner  of  Pearl  and  Broad;  along  the  then  shore  to 
Hanover  Square;  along  William,  to  Beaver,  to  Broad,  and  to  the  river 
again.  The  third,  or  East  Ward,  began  at  the  corner  of  Pearl  and 
Hanover  Square,  ran  along  shore  to  the  "  water  gate  "  at  the  foot 
of  Wall  Street,  along  Wall  to  William,  and  followed  the  curve  of 
William  from  Wall  to  Old  Slip,  or  the  river,  as  it  then  was.  The 
fourth,  or  North  Ward,  boundary  started  at  Beaver  and  William 
streets,  ran  along  William  to  Wall,  west  along  Wall  to  a  point  near 
where  Nassau  Street  now  begins,  then  along  Broad  to  Beaver,  and 
along  the  latter  back  to  William.  The  fifth,  or  West  Ward,  ran  from 
Beaver  along  Broad  to  Wall,  along  the  palisades  to  Broadway,  down 
Broadway  to  Beaver,  and  so  back  to  Broad  Street.  The  sixth,  or 
Out  Ward,  was  a  bold  excursion  into  the  country;  it  comprised  all  the 
rest  of  the  island  above  Wall  Street,  in  which  Harlem  was  now  the 
only  settlement. 

The  particular  immunities  and  privileges  asked  for  by  the  peti- 
tioners in  November,  1683,  had  thus  all  been  granted,  and  put  into 
practical  operation.  It  needed  now  only  the  charter  to  confirm  them. 
In  1686  Nicholas  Bayard,  Mayor,  and  James  Graham,  Recorder,  pre- 
pared a  draft  of  such  charter.  This  was  approved  by  the  Board  of 
Aldermen  and  Assistants,  and  engrossed  for  presentation  to  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council.  On  April  27,  1686,  it  was  there  duly  read,  ap- 
proved by  the  Council,  and  signed  by  the  Governor.  This  interesting 
document  is  still  preserved  intact  in  a  tin  box  at  the  City  Hall.  It 
made  the  city  a  corporation  under  the  style  of  "  The  Mayor.  Aldermen, 
and  Commonalty  of  the  City  of  New  York  " ;  the  officers  were  a  Mayor, 


80 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


CITY  S  SKA L  OK  !<>*<;. 


Recorder,  Town  Clerk,  six  Aldermen,  six  Assistant  Aldermen,  a 
Chamberlain,  a  Sheriff,  and  a  Coroner.  As  already  seen,  the  alder- 
men and  assistants  were  to  be  elected  by  the  people  of  each  ward. 
The  Mayor,  Recorder,  Town  Clerk,  and  Sheriff  were  appointed  by  the 
Governor.  The  Mayor,  Recorder,  and  Aldermen  constituted  a  Court 
of  Common  Pleas'for  debts  and  other  minor  cases.    The  corporation 

was  to  "  have  perpetual  succession, 
with  power  to  get,  receive,  and  hold 
lands,  rents,  liberties,  franchises,  and 
chattels,  and  to  transfer  the  same." 
The  fort,  the  Governor's  garden,  near 
its  gate  on  the  west,  and  the  King's 
farm  just  outside  the  land-gate  on 
Broadway,  were  excepted  from  the 
city's  holdings  or  control.  The  city 
after  whose  municipal  government 
that  of  New  York  was  now  modeled 
was  not  old  York,  but  Norwich,  then 
the  third  city  of  England.  Even  in 
1686  New  York  was  the  first  incorpo- 
rated and  chartered  city  in  the  Ameri- 
can Colonies,  although  it  might  boast 
a  much  earlier  existence  as  such, 
under  the  Dutch  form  since  1653,  and  under  the  English  since  1665. 
As  truly  as  of  any  city  in  the  United  States,  it  could  be  said  of 
the  metropolis  what  was  said  of  it  in  the  quaint  phraseology  of  the 
charter  even  in  1686:  "  The  Cit}-  of  New  York  is  an  ancient  city 
within  the  said  province,  and  the  citizens  of  the  said  city  have  an- 
ciently been  a  body  politic  and  corporate."  Its  antiquity  could  not 
have  been  very  oppressive  two  hundred  and  eleven  years  ago,  when  a 
man  born  only  five  years  after  the  discovery  of  its  site  was  a  hale  and 
hearty  citizen  seventy-two  years  of  age. 

An  event  of  some  concern  to  the  province  and  city  of  New  York 
was  the  death  of  King  Charles  II.,  in  1685.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
brother,the  Duke  of  York,  as  James  1 1.,  and  thus  his  property  in  Amer- 
ica became  a  crown  possession.  The  chief  influence  upon  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  in  New  York  was  that  now  it  seemed  possible  to  carry 
into  effect  a  plan  which  Dongan  had  recommended.  By  reason  of 
the  different  proprietorships  of  the  various  colonies,  no  uniform  rule 
of  import  or  export  duties  prevailed.  An  article  heavily  taxed  in 
New  York  might  be  free  in  New  Jersey  or  Connecticut.  The  customs 
at  New  York  suffered  greatly,  and  trad*1  was  tin-own  into  much  confu- 
sion, by  reason  Of  vessels  running  over  to  the  New  Jersey  shore  of  the 
river  and  there  unloading  their  goods.  These  were  gradually  smug- 
gled into  New  York,  and  sold  at  a  price  below  that  of  articles  which 
had  honestly  passed  the  Custom  TTonse.    Dongan,  therefore,  urged 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  XEW  YORK. 


81 


the  expediency  of  consolidating  all  the  King's  colonies  from  the  Dela- 
ware to  and  including  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts.  It  was  not 
regarded  with  much  favor  in  New  York  City,  either  by  the  English  or 
the  Dutch.  The  English  and  Dutch  in  the  provincial  town  harmo- 
nized well.  There  was  much  more  affinity  between  these  elements 
than  between  the  Puritans  of  New  England  and  the  English  citizens 
of  New  York.  Yet  the  consolidation  was  finally  effected.  But  Don- 
gan  was  recalled  as  the  result  of  it.  He  was  too  much  in  favor  of 
popular  liberties,  and  had  conceded  too  many  privileges  of  that  sort 
to  promise  to  be  a  strong  hand  in  administering  this  larger  constitu- 
ency. Andros,  now  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  was  therefore  intrusted 
with  the  government  of  the  combined  provinces  of  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  and  New  England. 

The  only  church  in  the  place  during  most  of  this  period  was  the 
old  stone  church  in  the  fort.  It  had  a  shingle  roof  and  a  wooden 
tower,  with  a  bell  in  it,  and  though  it  had  no  clock,  a  sun  dial  upon 
its  southern  side  served  to  indicate  the  time  of  day.  Still  over  the 
entrance  was  Kieft's  stone  with  the  inscription  announcing  that  he 
had  "  caused  the  community  "  to  build  this  church.  On  the  Sunday 
this  building  was  used  by  three  different  congregations,  who  wor- 
shiped in  as  many  different  languages.  First  came  the  Dutch  ser- 
vices, beginning  possibly  at  nine,  if  not  half-past  eight.  The  Dutch 
domines  possessed  the  gift  of  continuance,  and  the  sermon  and 
psalms  would  not  be  finished  inside  of  two  hours.  But  by  noon  they 
had  to  be  over,  for  then  came  the  Walloons,  and  the  refugee  Hugue- 
nots, who  had  left  France  before,  and  especially  after,  the  Bevoca- 
tion  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  in  1685.  There  was  a  service  in  French, 
which  might  last  not  much  longer  than  two  o'clock;  for  at  2.30  the 
English  soldiers  and  the  Governor,  with  family  or  retinue,  would  file 
into  the  same  audience  room  to  hear  the  English  prayer-book  read 
or  hear  an  English  sermon.  In  1679  the  Bev.  Charles  Woolley  was 
chaplain  in  the  fort.  He  preached  to  an  average  audience  of  some 
twenty-five  or  thirty  people.  Accordingly  he  must  have  had  much 
leisure  time  on  his  hands,  which  he  improved  by  writing  a  very  good 
description  of  his  experiences  in  the  New  World.  This  he  published 
in  1701,  under  the  title:  "  A  Two  Years'  Journal  in  New  York  and 
Parts  of  Its  Territories  in  America."  He  at  one  time  enjoyed  the  priv- 
ilege of  joining  a  party  in  hunting  a  bear  which  had  strayed  into  an 
orchard  between  Maiden  Lane  and  Cedar  Street.  It  gave  him  "  great 
diversion  and  sport."  The  French  bad  no  minister  till  1682,  when,  at 
the  request  of  the  Dutch,  Bev.  Pierre  Daill£  came  over  from  London. 
His  congregation  was  materially  increased  after  the  Bevocation.  In 
1686  fifty  or  sixty  Huguenot  families  had  fled  to  New  York  from  the 
French  West  Indies,  and  before  Dongan  left  over  two  hundred  fami- 
lies were  settled  there. 

At  the  time  of  the  surrender  to  the  English  in  1664,  the  Dutch 


82 


If  LSI*  >RY   (  )F  Til  I    GRK  \TER   NEW   V<  )RK. 


church  had  three  ministers:  the  two  Megapolenses  (van  Meckelen- 
burgs,  in  plain  Dutch),  father  and  son,  and  Domine  Drisius.  For  just 
one  hundred  years  after  this  the  congregation  worshiped  in  Dutch, 
the  first  English  pastor  not  being  called  till  17«'>4.  Yei  even  at  this 
time  some  had  in  mind  the  inevitable  change  of  language.  The  elder 
.Megapolensis  saw  to  it  thai  his  son  could  preach  in  English,  and 
Drisius  was  called  in  1(552  for  the  express  reason  that  he  understood 
English  well,  and  could  preach  in  it  if  required.  In  K5(i(J  the  vener- 
able Megapolensis  died;  a  year  before  his  son  had  left  to  go  and  settle 
in  Holland.  Mr.  Drisius  was  disabled  by  age  and  near  his  cud.  ami 
no  Dutch  minister  could  be  induced  to  settle  in  America  among  an 
alien  people.  So  in  1670  Governor  Lovelace  took  the  matter  in  hand 
to  secure  for  the  Dutch  congregation  what  they  had  failed  to  do  for 
t  hemselves.  He  sent  word  to  t  he  ( 'lassis  of  Amsterdam  t  hat  he  would 
pay  any  scholarly  and  godly  minister  whom  they  would  recommend 
the  sum  of  one  thousand  guilders  ($400)  yearly,  and  furnish  him  be- 
sides with  a  dwelling  house,  rent  free,  and  free  firewood.  This 
brought  over  the  Kev.  William  Nieu wenhuvs,  who  was  sensible 
enough  to  stick  to  his  Dutch  name  and  make  no  Novadomus  of  it.  He 
was  a  short,  corpulent  gentleman,  and  those  who  did  not  like  his  doc- 
trine complained  of  his  "  slabbering  speech.*'  lie  arrived  just  about 
when  Domine  Drisius  died,  in  1671,  and  held  forth  alone  till  his 
death,  ten  years  later.  Then  was  the  Dutch  church  again  pastorless 
until  the  Kev.  Henricus  Selyns  came  over  in  1682.  This  was  his 
second  appearance  in  America,  lie  had  been  pastor  at  Breuckelen 
from  1600  to  1664,  and  used  to  come  oxer  on  week  days  and  hold  set- 
vices  at  Stuyvesant's  Bouwery.  He  was  in  many  ways  a  notable  man, 
and  his  connection  with  the  church  of  New  York  marked  an  epoch  in 
its  history.  Like  Bogardus,  he  was  a  widower,  and  again,  like  this 
predecessor,  he  waited  till  he  could  tint!  the  likeliest  and  richest 
widow  in  the  city  before  he  consoled  himself  for  his  former  loss.  In 
10S4  .Mayor  Cornelius  Steenwyck  died,  and  two  years  or  more  later, 
Domine  Selyns  married  .Mrs.  Steenwyck.  no  doubt  carrying  with  her 
some  of  the  .Mayor's  50,000  florins,  and  some  of  that  tine  plenishing  of 
the  mansion  on  Whitehall  Street.  We  have  a  list  of  church  members 
and  I  heir  addresses  in  his  handwriting,  dated  L686.  He  writes  home 
to  Holland  of  his  gratification  at  the  love  of  his  people,  who  were 
building  him  a  parsonage  all  of  stone  lor  brick)  three  stories  high. 
But  he  complains  that  t  he  work  is  too  much  for  one  pastor.  II is  list  of 
members  shows  nearly  four  hundred  families.  Besides  this,  neighbor- 
ing communities  wore  constantly  asking  his  services  on  week  days, 
in  consideration  of  which  these  outlying  settlements  agreed  to  pay 
the  minister.  The  Coninmnipaw  people  gave  the  New  York  pastor 
thirty  bushels  of  wheal  for  administering  the  Communion  three  times 
•  n  t  he  course  of  1  he  year. 

New  York  was  cosmopolitan  as  to  nationalities.    It  was  so  also  as 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


83 


regards  phases  of  religious  belief.  Dongan,  himself  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic, writes  home:  "  New  York  has  a  chaplain  belonging  to  I  he  foi  l,  of 
the  Church  of  England;  secondly,  a  Dutch  Calvinist;  third,  a  French 
Calvinist,  and  fourth,  a  Dutch  Lutheran.  There  be  not  many  of  Eng- 
land; a  few  Bonian  Catholics;  abundance  of  Quaker  preachers,  men 
; i women;  singing  Quakers,  ranting  Quakers,  Sabbatarians,  anti- 
Sabbatarians,  some  Anabaptists,  some  Independents,  sonic  -lews;  in 
short,  of  all  sorts  of  opinions  there  are  some,  and  the  most  part  of 
none  at  all."  The  last  was  rather  a  gloomy  view  of  the  situation, 
perhaps  not  quite  warranted  by  the  facts,  for  all  men  were  of  sonic 
religious  sect  or  other  then,  although  not  therefore  the  more  pacific. 
Under  the  English  regime  the  Luthe- 
rans were  allowed  to  have  their  own 
minister,  and  they  built  a  church  near 
the  fort.  But  Colve  demolished  the 
church  because  it  was  in  the  way  of  his 
guns,  and  under  Lovelace  their  pastor, 
the  Rev.  Jacob  Fabritius,  had  to  be 
dismissed  on  account  of  bad  conduct. 
( >n  the  basis  of  theological  differences, 
he  declined  to  exchange  greetings  on 
the  street  with  Domine  Nieuwenhuys; 
while  a  Voetian  or  Cocceian  leaning  set  the  hearts  of  the  Dutch 
domines  against  each  other.  Perforce  there  was  toleration  of  Jews 
and  Catholics  and  Quakers  and  Baptists  and  Lutherans,  because  the 
English  governors  would  not  listen  to  anything  else;  especially  under 
Dongan  the  policy  was  to  tolerate  everybody,  because  James  himself 
wished  to  be  tolerated  at  home  for  his  Catholic  faith.  The  Quakers, 
however,  were  fined  for  refusing  to  do  military  duty,  but  then  this 
was  a  stretch  of  religion  into  civil  life  which  could  not  be  safely  per- 
mitted by  the  magistrates.  The  Jews  too  labored  under  some  restric- 
tions; they  could  not  sell  goods  at  retail,  and  when  they  asked  for 
liberty  to  exercise  their  religion,  it  was  officially  or  formally  refused. 
But  it  was  allowed  informally,  no  interference  being  made  with  their 
religious  services  in  a  private  house  or  hall.  A  few  Catholics  were  in 
the  habit  of  gathering  with  Governor  Dongan  in  an  apartment  of  the 
Governor's  House  in  the  fort,  he  having  brought  with  him  one 
Thomas  Harvey,  a  Jesuit,  as  private  chaplain. 

A  test  of  the  enlightenment  of  a  community  in  that  age  might  well 
be  made  of  the  way  that  witchcraft  was  treated,  and  by  this  test  New 
York  conies  out  creditably.  In  1667  Balph  Hall  and  his  wife  Mary,  of 
Brookhaven,  L.  I.,  were  tried  on  a  charge  of  having  procured  the 
death  of  a  man  and  an  infant  by  wicked  arts  of  the  devil.  Upon  the 
jury  served  Jacob  Leisler,  a  name  later  to  become  prominent  in  the 
annals  of  province  and  city.  The  jury  gave  a  verdict  of  acquittal  for 
the  husband,  but  they  had  some  doubts  as  to  tin1  wife,  yet  the  only 


DE  SILLE  HOUSE. 


SI 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


penalty  inflicted  was  that  he  give  bonds  for  her  good  conduct.  In  lt>08 
Nicolls  cleared  them  even  of  this  obligation.  A  year  or  two  after,  a 
case  of  witchcraft  arose  in  Westchester,  with  the  result  that  here  too 
the  accused  was  declared  innocent.  When  Captain  Colve  ruled  New 
York  a  case  of  witchcraft  was  brought  before  him,  but  he  made  short 
work  of  it.  Balthazar  Bekker,  the  Dutch  clergyman,  had  not  in  vain 
labored  to  disabuse  the  minds  of  his  countrymen  of  that  foolish  and 
wicked  superstition  which  brought  unjust  misery  and  untold  horrors 
and  cruel  death  upon  so  many  innocent  persons,  both  in  Europe  and 
America.  No  small  part  of  this  enlightenment  was  due  to  schools. 
The  opportunities  for  children  to  acquire  the  rudiments  in  the  young 
city  were  quite  abundant.  We  can,  indeed,  find  no  record  of  school 
buildings.  But  private  houses  were  rented,  or  the  church  was  util- 
ized for  the  purpose,  and  some  teachers  received  classes  at  their  own 
residences.  A  bill  was  brought  in  to  the  City  Corporation  in  166G  by 
one  Casper  Steinmets,  who  owned  a  house  on  the  Brouwcr  Street,  now 
Stone;  the  house  had  been  rented  for  the  use  of  a  public  school,  and 
the  bill  for  the  year  was  2G0  florins  ($104).  Evert  Pietersen  Keteltas 
was  the  teacher  of  this  school,  and  exercised  his  profession  until  Don- 
gan's  time.  As  he  had  been  appointed  and  paid  by  the  West  India 
Company,  the  change  of  regime  affected  him  closely.  lie  was  in  no 
hurry,  however,  to  get  himself  adjusted  to  the  new  environment.  On 
September  19,  1605,  he  came  before  the  mayor  and  council  asking 
that  a  salary  be  paid  him  by  the  town  authorities.  Toward  the  end 
of  his  life  an  assistant  was  appointed.  In  1079  we  learn  of  one  Abra- 
ham Lannoy,  or  de  la  Nov,  brother  of  the  collector  of  the  port,  who 
kept  school,  and  also  conducted  the  Catechism  class,  at  which  about 
twenty-five  young  persons  attended.  Indeed,  the  schoolmaster  was 
a  part  of  the  church  machinery;  he  not  only  taught  the  rudiments  on 
week  days,  and  instructed  the  children  in  the  doctrines  of  the  church, 
but  on  Sundays  he  was  voorleser  and  precentor,  reading  the  law  and 
the  creed  and  the  scripture  lesson  for  the  minister;  leading  the  sing- 
ing of  the  people,  and  for  the  consistory  or  board  of  elders  he  kept  the 
record  of  baptism.  De  la  Noy  was  made  Ketcltas's  assistant  in  all 
these  functions  about  the  year  16S6.  The  name  of  this  early  city  ped- 
agogue would  indicate  that  he  must  be  regarded  as  the  honorable  an- 
cestor of  a  family  prominent  in  New  York  society  to-day. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


A  CLASH  OF  PARTIES. 

t 

SPECIAL  Providence  seems  to  have  been  at  work  to  make  it 
easy  for  the  Dutch  inhabitants  of  New  York  Province  and 
City  to  submit  to  the  inevitable  in  becoming  English  sub- 
jects. If  there  were  any  rankling  sense  of  shame  or  annoy- 
ance by  reason  of  the  sudden  incursion  of  the  aliens  and  the  half- 
forced  surrender  to  them  in  1664,  it  was  amply  avenged  and  wiped  out 
by  the  brilliant  success  of  1673,  in  retaking  what  was  their  own  by 
their  gallant  countrymen.  This  brief  restitution  of  all  things  Dutch 
was  indeed  again  superseded  by  the  rule  of  the  English,  but  there 
was  no  surrender  to  bring  about  the  second  occupancy;  it  was  not  by 
the  force  of  arms,  but  by  the  terms  of  diplomacy.  And  scarce  had 
their  Lord  Proprietor  become  a  king,  thus  making  their  province  a 
crown  possession,  when,  who  of  all  persons  should  ascend  the  throne 
of  England  but  their  own  beloved  Prince  of  Orange,  in  whose  name 
their  town  had  been  retaken  in  1673,  and  in  whose  honor  it  had  been 
called  New  Orange. 

It  was  a  pity  that  a  change  in  dynasty  so  gratifying  to  the  prepon- 
derating element  in  our  city's  population  should  have  entailed  so 
much  hurtful  disturbance  and  have  planted  so  many  roots  of  bitter- 
ness within  its  limited  boundaries.  For  the  change  of  kings  in  Eng- 
land brought  on  here  the  eventful  Leisler  episode,  a  drama  of  several 
acts,  of  which  the  last  was  a  tragedy.  As  the  place  of  its  enactment 
was  our  city,  and  all  the  chief  personages  residents  of  it,  it  deserves 
careful  consideration  as  one  of  the  most  thrilling  events  in  our  city's 
history.  It  is  significant  also  as  the  first  uprising  here  of  the  people 
of  moderate  means  and  without  political  recognition — i.e.,  the  so- 
called  masses — against  what  had  hitherto  been  the  ruling  class,  the 
prominent  and  wealthy  citizens,  who  now  for  a  generation  or  more 
had  been  occupying  positions  of  authority  and  power  in  the  provin- 
cial or  municipal  government,  only  to  be  obtained  by  the  favor  of  the 
Governor  or  King.  Therefore  the  episode  bore  fruit  in  a  long-standing 
antagonism  between  these  orders  of  citizens,  throwing  the  hitherto 
perhaps  only  apparent  harmony  of  municipal  life  into  the  confusions 
of  party  conflict.  Dislike  and  distrust  may  previously  have  smol- 
dered like  hidden  fires,  or  may  have  muttered  words  of  anger  under 
the  breath.   But  after  events  had  suddenly  brought  on  the  open  and 


86 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


furious  clash  of  parties,  the  ravages  of  the  coufiagration  for  a  brief 
period  disfigured  the  fair  face  of  our  city's  peace,  and  the  echoes  of 
the  explosion  of  pent-up  wrath  long  resounded  within  the  narrow 
precincts  of  the  little  colonial  seaport 

Sir  Edmund  Andros  had  been  invested  with  the  office  of  governor- 
General,  or  sort  of  viceroy,  over  the  combined  Provinces  of  New  King- 
land,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey.  This  appointment  involved  Don- 
gan's  resignation  as  Governor  of  New  York,  on  August  11,  1688.  An- 
dros made  Boston  the  seat  of  government,  so  as  to  be  near  the  trou- 
blesome Indians  in  Maine,  and  Colonel  Francis  Nicholson  was  made 
Lieutenant-Governor  over  the  Province  of  New  York.  The  Latter  ar- 


phelepse  manor  ^f^,^^^'-  "      richest  man  in  town). 


and  Nicholas  Bayard,  who  was  Mayor  a  few  years  before,  and  had 
occupied  various  other  positions  in  provincial  and  city  affairs.  It  is 
well  to  bear  these  names  in  mind. 

On  November  ."»,  1('»SS,  William  of  Orange  landed  in  England.  The 
Revolution  was  happily  bloodless,  and  in  February,  L689,  William 
and  Mary  were  proclaimed  King  and  Queen.  The  news  of  the  land 
ing  of  William  had  been  enough  to  determine  t  he  people  of  New  Fug 
land  what  action  to  take,  and  in  April,  10S!).  Andros  suddenly  found 
himself  deposed  and  a  prisoner,  while  a  government  of  their  own  was 
set  up  by  the  people.  The  news  of  the  event  in  England,  and  of  its  con- 
sequence in  Boston,  came  simultaneously  to  New  York  hue  in  April, 
and  it  is  no  wonder  t hat  Nicholson  received  it  with  small  equanimity. 
The  Lieutenant-Governor  drew  his  sword,  and  putting  it  to  the  breast 
of  the  excited  Dutchman  who  brought  it.  threatened  to  run  him 
through  the  body  "  if  he  would  not  bo  silent  of  it."  Now.  why  this 
fear  of  publicity,  which,  of  course,  could  not  be  prevented  under  any 
threats?  The  example  of  Boston  might  prove  contagious.  But  why 
did  Boston  act  as  it  did,  and  why  should  New  York  do  likewise?  The 


rived  in  the  city  on  <  Oc- 
tober 1.  Hiss,  and  his 
council  was  composed 
of  Anthony  Brockholls, 
a  <  Jatholic  English  gen- 
tleman, who  had  been  a 
member  of  council  un- 
der former  governors, 
and  once  or  twice  had 
acted  as  their  lieuten- 
ant in  their  absence; 
and  the  three  promine.it 
residents  of  New  York, 
Frederick  Philipse  (the 


Stephen  van  Cortlandt, 
who  was  now  the  Mayor, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


flight  of  the  Catholic  King  James  to  Fiance  would  let  loose  upon 
England  and  her  colonies  all  the  power  of  that  alien  country,  with  all 
the  influence  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  back  her.  This  \v;is  a  formid- 
able threat  in  the  days  of  Louis  XIV.,  with  the  Revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  only  three  years  old;  and  Prance  and  Catholicism, 
with  the  resources  of  Louis  XIV.  behind  them,  were  very  close  at 
hand  in  Canada.  With  James  a  refugee  in  Frame  and  the  protege  of 
Louis,  all  of  James's  officials  might  be  allies  of  s<>  dreadful  and  so 
near  an  enemy.  The  safest  policy  was  to  deprive  them  of  power  be- 
fore waiting  to  see  to  whom  they  would  be  loyal.  Hence  Andros 
went  down  swiftly  in  Boston,  and  Nicholson  niight  look  for  no  better 
treatment  here.  Yet  the  people  of  New  York  did  not  act  hastily. 
And  Nicholson  too  at  first  showed  tact  in  inviting  the  militia  of  the 
city  to  co-operate  with  the  regulars  in  guarding  the  fort  and  the  de- 
fenses of  the  town,  and  in  consenting  that  the  officers  of  the  various 
militia  companies  should  take  turns  in  commanding  the  watch. 

It  has  been  told  how  in  the  days  of  Andros's  first  term  the  train- 
bands had  been  efficiently  organized.  There  were  now  five  companies 
of  them,  with  Nicholas  Bayard  as  their  Colonel,  and  the  Captains,  be- 
ginning with  the  senior,  Jacob  Leisler,  Abraham  De  Peyster,  Nicholas 
Stuyvesant,  Francis  De  Bruyn,  Charles  Lodowick,  and  Gabriel  Min- 
vielle,  all  men  of  substance,  good  and  true,  of  honorable  name  and 
doing.  These  citizen  soldiers,  as  told  before,  were  always  to  keep 
their  firearms  ready  loaded  in  the  house.  In  case  of  alarms,  drums 
were  to  be  beaten,  whereupon  each  company  was  to  repair  at  once  to 
the  residence  of  its  captain,  and  form  in  front,  of  his  house.  It  was  now- 
arranged  that  each  company  in  turn  should  go  from  day  to  day  to  the 
fort,  its  captain  setting  the  watch  from  among  his  men;  and  thus, 
with  some  sense  of  security,  the  citizens  awaited  the  dreaded  on- 
slaught of  the  French,  and  hoped  to  avert  some  as  greatly  dreaded, 
but  much  less  likely,  plot  of  the  handful  of  Catholics  in  the  town.  All 
went  well  until  May  31,  1689.  Nicholson  on  that  evening  complained 
of  the  posting  of  a  certain  sentinel.  Captain  De  Peyster's  company 
had  the  watch  that  night,  and  his  Lieutenant,  Henry  Cuyler,  replied 
that  the  sentinel  was  there  by  his  Captain's  or  his  own  order.  This 
reply  irritated  the  Lieutenant-Governor;  he  flew  into  a  passion  and 
dismissed  the  militia  officer  from  his  presence  with  the  perilous  ob- 
servation "that  he  would  rather  see  the  towm  on  fire"  than  be  dic- 
tated to  by  them.  Now  the  firing  of  the  town  by  the  adherents  of 
James  was  the  very  thing  looked  for  by  the  citizens,  and  here  Nichol- 
son himself  seemed  to  imply  that  he  was  contemplating  its  occur- 
rence. The  drums  beat  ;  all  the  other  companies  not  on  duty  rushed 
to  arms  and  formed  in  front  of  their  Captains'  houses.  What  was  the 
matter?  The  word  was  passed  around  that  Nicholson  intended  to  fire 
the  town.  Small  difference  did  it  make  that  this  was  not  altogether 
true  in  those  inflammable  times.   What  Nicholson  had  said  was  quite 


88 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


enough  to  start  an  explosion.  Colonel  Bayard,  of  the  Royal  Council, 
known  to  be  in  sympathy  with  Nicholson,  or  at  least  not  to  mistrust 
him,  endeavored  to  allay  the  fears  or  suspicions  of  the  militia.  But 
it  was  in  vain;  to  trust  the  friends  of  the  deposed  King  was  already 
a  long  way  toward  being  an  adherent  one's  self,  as  people  then  rea- 
soned. The  whole  council,  even  their  three  fellow  residents,  came 
under  suspicion.  Who  could  be  trusted  in  those  days?  How  soon 
might  not  the  French  be  upon  them?  Quick,  decisive  action,  disarm- 
ing all  enemies  of  the  true  religion,  was  the  only  safety.  The  militia 
marched  into  the  fort.  The  senior  Captain,  Jacob  Leisler,  drew  up  an 
agreement  which  all  the  captains  signed,  that  they  should  in  turn,  as 
before,  keep  guard  there,  and  hold  the  town  for  William  of  Orange 
till  he  could  be  heard  from.  "  The  captain  whose  watch  it  is  to  be 
for  that  time  captain  of  the  fort."  Four  hundred  citizens  affixed  their 
names,  besides  the  captains;  and  now  the  people  breathed  more 
freely.   The  date  we  have  now  reached  is  June  3,  1689. 

When  the  militia  captains  took  command  of  the  fort  the  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor summoned  the  councilors  to  meet  at  the  City  Hall  on 
Coenties  Slip.  They  had  not  been  long  in  session  when  Captain  Lodo- 
wick,  "  Captain  of  the  fort  "  for  that  day,  entered  the  room  and  de- 
manded the  keys  of  the  fort  and  of  the  city.  The  unmistakable  atti- 
tude of  the  entire  force  of  the  train-bands,  with  the  population  to 
back  them,  compelled  Nicholson  to  yield.  He  gave  up  the  keys,  be- 
took himself  to  an  English  ship  in  the  harbor  ready  to  sail,  and  went 
to  England.  There  was  an  opportunity  now  for  the  members  of  the 
council  to  act  according  to  their  preferences,  the  flight  and  abandon- 
ment of  the  situation  by  their  chief  leaving  them  free  so  to  do.  Bay- 
ard. Philipse,  and  van  Cortlandt  might  have  taken  sides  with  their 
fellow  citizens,  and  surely  the  company  of  De  Peyster  or  Stuyvesant 
or  Minvielle  need  not  have  repelled  them;  while  Leisler  was  related 
by  marriage  to  Bayard  and  van  Cortlandt  both.  But  they  chose  to 
keep  aloof  from  the  popular  movement.  Bayard  made  an  ineffectual 
attempt  to  regain  power  by  ordering  the  militia,  as  their  colonel,  to 
disband.  He  also  contested  the  appointment  of  a  collector  of  the 
port  by  the  popular  party  in  the  place  of  the  Catholic  incumbent,  and 
in  a  personal  encounter  at  the  Custom  House  doors  he  received  some 
rude  handling.  Then  he  went  to  Albany.  Philipse  also  left  the  city, 
but  Mayor  van  Cortlandt  remained  at  his  post. 

On  June  6,  1689,  the  news  reached  New  York  that  William  and 
Mary  had  been  crowned  King  and  Queen,  but  it  was  unaccompanied 
by  any  appointments  to  office.  Then,  on  June  10,  Leisler  and  the 
other  captains,  still  acting  as  of  equal  authority  among  themselves, 
issued  a  call  for  a  convention  of  delegates  from  all  the  counties.  This 
convention  met  on  June  26.  It  appointed  a  Committee  of  Safety, 
whose  action  now  for  the  first  time  brings  into  prominence  above  the 
rest  of  the  popular  party  the  man  with  whose  name  this  whole  episode 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


is  associated,  and  who  himself  tasted  the  most  bitter  fruit  of  it.  The 
committee  made  Jacob  Leisler  captain  of  the  fort  permanently,  with- 
out rotation  with  the  other  captains;  and  later,  on  August  16,  1689, 
they  requested  him  to  assume  the  military  command  of  the  province, 
voicing  in  this  the  desire  of  the  residents  of  the  various  counties. 

In  the  good  ship  the  "  Otter,"  arriving  at  New  Amsterdam  on 
April  27,  1660,  there  was  a  company  of  fifteen  soldiers  for  the  re-en- 
forcement of  the  garrison.  Second  on  the  list  stands  the  name  of 
"  Jacob  Loyseler,  from  Francfort."  His  father  was  pastor  of  a  Ke- 
fornied  Church  in  that  German  City,  and  in  1670.  when  Peter  Stuyve- 
sant  and  Oloff  Stevenson  van  Cortlandt  were  in  the  consistory  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  in  New  York  as  elders,  Jacob  Leisler  was  one 
of  the  deacons.  In  1662  he  married  Elsje  Loockermans,  the  widow 
of  Cornelius  Vanderveer,  a  niece  of  Anneke  Jans  ;  and  by  this 
marriage  genealogists  assure  us  he  came  into  quite  near  rela- 
tionship with  Councilors  Bayard,  Philipse,  and  van  Cortlandt. 
He  was  now  a  prosperous  merchant,  owning  ships,  and  sailing  in 
them  himself  at  times,  and  he 
occupied  a  substantial  brick 
house  on  the  "  water  side,"  or 
on  Whitehall  Street,  between 
State  and  Pearl,  west  side. 
He  had  one  son,  Jacob,  and 
two  married  daughters,  one, 
Mary,  the  wife  of  an  English- 
man, Jacob  Milborne,  who, 
after  the  tragedy  which  de- 
prived her  of  father  and  hus- 
band at  one  fell  blow,  became 
the  wife  of  Abraham  Gouver- 
neur,  who  was  also  a  promi- 
nent adherent  of  Leisler's.  In 
1667  we  saw  Leisler,  as  noted 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  one 
of  a  jury  acquitting  a  man  and 
woman  accused  of  witchcraft. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent troubles  he  had  protested 
against  paying  duties  on  his  ship  in  port  to  a  Catholic  Collector,  and 
as  he  championed  his  cause  stoutly  before  the  council,  it  had  brought 
him  favorably  before  the  people  as  a  man  of  decision  and  courage.  As 
senior  captain  of  the  train-bands  he  had  also  necessarily  been  some- 
what in  the  public  eye.  A  firm  hand  and  determined  spirit  being  now 
in  demand,  and  Leisler  possessing  these,  it  was  to  be  expected  that 
the  choice  of  leader  should  have  finally  fallen  upon  him. 

We  advance  another  month,  and  on  September  29,  1689,  by  direc- 


leisler's  residence. 


1)0 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tioi)  of  t  In-  <  'oniniil  tee  of  Safety,  and  in  line  with  t  he  principle  of  pop- 
ular sovereignty  which  was  now  the  vogue,  an  event  took  place 
hitherto  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  this  city,  and  not  to  be  re- 
peated until  ls:»4,  or  one  hundred  and  forty-live  years  later.  The 
people  gathered  in  their  several  wards  and  voted  not  only  for  the 
Aldermen  and  Assistants  of  each  ward,  but  also  for  the  .Mayor  and 
the  other  appointive  officers.  Peter  de  la  Nov,  Collector  of  the  Port  in 
Ki7!>,  and  brot  her  of  1  he  schoolmaster,  was  elected  Mayor;  John  John- 
son, Sheriff,  and  Abraham  (iouvernour,  Clerk.  On  October  1  1  these 
men  were  inducted  into  their  offices  by  proclamation  of  the  "  Captain 
of  the  Port."  Put  Mayor  van  Cortlandt,  while  ousted  from  the  City 
Hall,  would  not  recognize  the  validity  of  his  successor's  election,  and 
refused  to  yield  up  the  books  and  seals. 

Leisler  was  as  yet  only  what  the  Committee  of  Safety  had  made 
him.  Captain  of  the  Fort  and  Military  Commander  of  the  Province. 
By  a  curious  conjunction  of  circumstances,  a  letter  from  their  majes- 
ties now  unwittingly  conferred  upon  Leisler,  by  royal  sanction,  the 
supreme  command  of  the  Province.  It  was  dated  July  30,  1GSU,  and 
reached  New  York  early  in  December.  The  superscription  read,  "  To 
Francis  Nicholson,  Esq.,  Lieutenant-Governor  and  Commander-in- 
Chief  in  our  Province  of  New  York,  and,  in  his  absence,  to  such  as  for 
the  time  being  fake  care  for  preserving  the  peace  and  administering 
the  laws."  it  is  easy  to  surmise  why  William  and  Mary  had  con- 
cocted so  peculiar  an  address.  What  had  taken  place  in  England 
might  well  have  been  supposed  to  occasion  similar  changes  in  the 
dependent  colonies.  Who  could  know  what,  had  happened  at  New 
York?  If  Nicholson  ruled,  all  right;  be  he  still  our  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor; if  some  one  else,  then  be  he  the  man.  Certainly  Nicholson  was 
"absent"',  quite  permanently  so.  Certainly  Jacob  Leisler  ••for  the 
time  being  "  was  taking  care  of  i  he  peace  and  administering  the  laws. 
The  Committee  of  Safety  was  quite  clear,  therefore,  that  Leisler 
should  now  regard  himself  "for  the  time  being,"  and  until  another 
incumbent  should  arrive,  Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  York.  And 
the  occupation  of  the  Committee  being  also  now  gone,  Leisler  re- 
solved it  into  a  council,  composed  of  eight  members. 

Small  notice  need  here  be  taken  of  Leisler's  acts  so  far  as  these 
relate  to  affairs  outside  of  the  city.  Yet  it  cannot  be  left  without 
emphatic  remark  that  it  was  due  to  him  that  there  convened  the  lirst 
colonial  congress,  and  took  place  the  tirst  concerted  movement  on  the 
part  of  the  colonies  in  their  own  defense,  hi  February,  L690,  oc- 
curred the  massacre  and  burning  of  Schenectady  by  the  Indians,  in- 
stigated by  the  French.  At  once  Leisler  raised  and  sent  to  Albany 
a  force  of  armed  men  under  Jacob  Milborne,  his  son-in-law.  He  sum- 
moned a  Provincial  Assembly  to  provide  means  and  supplies  for  a 
vigorous  assault  on  the  Indians;  and  not  deeming  that  enough  had 
been  done,  he  sent  the  members  of  his  council  as  emissaries  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


9] 


^/'^^  sy^* <^y*:  t^-^^Z-c&f  rur/-1&^£^ 


y  &±J^9y^  &^rjf~^  ^ / 


AUTOGRAPH  LETTER  OF  LEISLKR. 


1)2 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


various  colonies  to  urge  them  to  unite  in  an  attempt  to  end  French 
and  Indian  attacks  by  a  concerted  movement  against  Canada.  A 
congress  of  deputies  to  consult  on  this  question  met  in  May,  1690. 
Not  much  was  accomplished  in  the  end,  for  the  colonies  were  hardly 
ripe  as  yet  for  a  policy  so  advanced.  But  by  means  of  it  the  authori- 
ties of  New  England  and  a  few  other  colonies  officially  recognized  the 
validity  of  Leisler's  position  as  temporary  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
New  York. 

In  the  mean  time  the  deposed  and  scattered  members  of  Nicholson's 
Council  had  not  been  idle.  Van  Cortlandt  had  remained  in  town  to 
fight  it  out;  Philipse  saw  no  good  reason  for  staying  away  from  New 
York,  and  even  Bayard,  who  had  most  strenuously  set  himself 
against  the  new  regime,  came  back  from  Albany.  These  men  were 
able  to  rally  quite  a  following.  No  sooner  was  Leisler  raised  to 
power  above  the  other  captains  than  their  jealousy  was  awakened, 
and  for  slight  reasons  one  after  another  detached  himself  from  his 
cause.  As  early  as  November  Captains  Stuyvesant,  De  Peyster,  and 
Minvielle  had  resigned  their  commands.  De  Peyster,  however,  ac- 
cepted an  important  office  later  and  remained  friendly  to  Leisler  to 
the  last.  Bayard's  party  constantly  represented  Leisler's  following 
as  composed  entirely  of  "  the  rabble."  A  paper  purporting  to  have 
been  signed  by  several  citizens,  and  two  ministers  among  them,  com- 
plained that  Leisler  gathered  about  him  and  put  into  office  men  of 
low  and  criminal  antecedents.  This  was  certainly  not  true  of  the  orig- 
inal movement.  The  train-band  captains,  men  of  eminent  respecta- 
bility,stood  with  him  as  one  man  in  the  opposition  to  James's  officials. 
The  militia  and  the  people  back  of  them  may  have  been  plain  artisans 
and  tradespeople  of  lowly  rank  in  the  community,  but  while  these 
people  did  not  belong  to  the  office-holding  or  patrician  class,  to  char- 
acterize them  as  Ioav  and  criminal,  was  slanderously  unjust.  It  was 
hoped  that  many  would  be  shamed  out  of  their  connection  with  Leis- 
ler, and  doubtless  this  policy  met  with  more  success  than  it  deserved. 
There  can  he  no  doubt  that  toward  the  last  Leisler  was  driven,  partly 
by  the  taste  of  power  and  partly  by  the  excessive  annoyances  of  the 
opposition,  to  measures  of  a  somewhat  arbitrary  nature.  He  perhaps 
used  1 1 is  power  of  imprisoning  his  opponents  rather  too  freely. 
Domine  Varick,  pastor  of  several  Long  Island  churches,  had  indulged 
in  strong  language  against  Leisler.  His  freedom  of  speech  soon  led 
to  the  restraint  of  his  person  at  the  fort,  where  he  describes  the  state 
of  things  during  six  months  in  a  letter  still  extant,  which,  however, 
is  not  to  be  regarded  strictly  as  a  model  of  exactitude.  He  had  com- 
fortable quarters  enough  himself,  but  others  were  kept  in  rooms  with 
the  windows  boarded  up,  and  some  had  chains  on  their  legs.  In  Jan- 
uary. 1000.  Bayard  was  arrested,  a  fate  which  van  Cortlandt  escaped 
by  hasty  flight.  A  court  was  summoned,  and  Leisler's  most  deter- 
mined foe  Mas  condemned  to  death  for  treason  on  the  ground  of  his 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


93 


opposition  to  the  reigning  King's  representative.  Bayard  sued  for 
pardon  in  a  very  bumble  fasbion,  even  recognizing  Leisler  as  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor by  addressing  bim  as  such.  As  the  intention  was  to 
frighten  him,  the  sentence  of  death  was  readily  commuted;  but  be 
remained  in  prison  during  the  remainder  of  Leisler's  term,  or  for  the 
space  of  about  fourteen  months. 

A  year  very  quickly  passed,  the  events  up  the  river,  and  the  at- 
tempt to  organize  a  colonial  union  against  the  savages  and  French, 
filling  up  most  of  the  interval.  At  last,  in  January,  1691,  began  to 
arrive  a  part  of  the  fleet  accompanying  the  Governor  appointed  by 
William  III.  to  supersede  Andros  and  Nicholson.  A  storm  having 
separated  the  vessels,  the  first  to  arrive  was  Major  Richard  In- 
goldsby,  Lieutenant-Governor,  with  a  party  of  soldiers.  On  landing 
he  peremptorily  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  Nicholson's 
representations  had  naturally  enough  put  him  in  anything  but  an 
impartial  frame  of  mind,  and  the  patrician  party  found  him  heartily 
committed  to  their  side.  Unfortunately  be  had  no  papers  to  sustain 
his  demand.  They  were  on  board  the  Governor's  ship,  and  that  had 
not  yet  arrived.  Hence  Leisler,  considering  himself  the  King's  rep- 
resentative on  the  strength  of  the  letter  received  in  December,  1689, 
firmly  but  courteously  declined  to  comply,  unless  the  proper  papers 
showing  his  authority  were  in  evidence.  This  refusal  sent  Ingoldsby 
back  into  the  arms  of  the  opposing  party  a  more  determined  friend 
than  ever,  as  furious  a  hater  as  they  of  Leisler  and  his  "  rabble."  For 
several  weeks  matters  thus  stood.  The  common  people  seeing  the  old 
favorites  re-enforced  by  the  King's  appointees,  were  driven  to  desper- 
ation. Crowding  once  more  in  Leisler's  rear,  as  they  had  done  be- 
fore, they  committed  an  act  of  rashness  of  which  he  could  not  ap- 
prove. They  swarmed  into  the  fort,  and  some  of  the  more  violent  one" 
mounting  the  walls  fired  its  guns  at  His  Majesty's  troops,  result- 
ing in  the  death  of  one  man  and  injuries  to  others.  Leisler  disavowed 
the  act,  but  it  could  not  be  recalled.  At  last  the  strain  was  relieved 
on  March  19,  1691,  by  the  arrival  of  Colonel  Henry  Slougbter,  the 
Royal  Governor.  Now  exchanges  are  swiftly  made:  the  new  Gov- 
ernor to  the  fort,  the  new  Council  into  power,  the  old  Council  to 
prison,  and  Leisler  with  them.  The  Governor's  Council  consisted  of 
Philipse,  van  Cortlandt,  Bayard,  Minvielle,  and  a  few  others,  an 
ominous  combination  for  the  friends  of  the  people,  whose  strife 
seemed  now  to  have  been  all  in  vain. 

No  time  was  lost  in  bringing  charges  of  high  treason  against  Leis- 
ler and  all  his  council.  A  special  court  of  eight  judges  was  appointed 
by  the  Governor,  of  whom  Richard  Ingoldsby  was  one.  Leisler 
denied  the  right  of  the  court  to  try  him,  and  appealed  to  the  letter  of 
December,  1689.  The  judges  evaded  a  decision  as  to  the  legitimacy 
of  the  status  this  gave  to  Leisler  as  the  acting  Governor  in  Nichol- 
son's place.   They  referred  the  decision  of  this  point  to  the  Governor 


94 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


and  his  Council,  whereby  the  very  men  who  were  Leister's  bitterest 
enemies,  thirsting  for  revenge  for  personal  injuries,  became  the  real 
court  to  judge  him.  The  verdict  might  have  been  anticipated.  On 
April  13,  1091,  Leisler  and  Milborne  and  six  more  of  the  Council  were 
convicted  of  high  treason  and  condemned  to  death.  The  six  had  their 
sentence  commuted  to  imprisonment,  or  at  least  their  death  war 
rants  were  never  signed.  lint  the  bitterness  of  personal  hatred  would 
not  thus  allow  the  two  principal  actors  in  the  late  upheaval  of  the 
people,  or  populace,  to  escape. 

It  is  difficult  to  maintain  an  attitude  of  impartiality  in  treating  of 
an  episode  which  so  powerfully  stirred  the  feelings  on  both  sides, 
and  thus  has  elicited  accounts  so  strongly  conflicting.  Yet  it  would 
seem  as  if  the  sentence  of  death  against  Leisler  were  unjust,  and  its 
execution  the  result  of  a  deliberate  and  implacable  thirst  for  revenge 
on  the  part  of  his  chief  opponents.  A  court  or  council  disposed  in 
be  fair,  and  not  too  eager  to  proceed  to  extremities,  would  have  given 
Leisler  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  regarding  the  letter  of  December, 
L689,  and  not  thrown  it  out  of  court  altogether.  Indeed,  from  some 
accounts  it  would  appear  that  the  trial  proceeded  only  upon  Leister's 
conduct  after  the  arrival  of  Ingoldsby.  Occupying  the  position  he 
did  de  facto,  at  the  instance  of  a  representative  body  of  his  fellow-citi- 
zens, his  course  then  was  not  blameworthy  at  all  in  view  of  the  ab- 
sence of  the  proper  papers  to  accredit  the  authority  of  the  new  comer. 
Indeed,  this  most  convincing  consideration  was  made  the  ground 
Upon  which  the  reversal  of  the  attainder  against  Leisler  was  granted 
by  Parliament  in  1(595.  At  that  time  aa  impartial  and  dispassionate 
review  of  the  situation  compelled  the  conclusion  "  that  Leisler  had 
been  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  until  their  Majesties'  pleasure 
should  be  further  known;  that  he  was  afterward  confirmed  in  his  au- 
thority by  their  .Majesties'  letter  dated  July  30,  1089  [received  in  New 
York  December,  L689] ;  that  while  he  held  this  power  by  virtue  of 
said  authority,  Major  Ingoldsby  had  arrived  in  January  and  de- 
manded the  surrender  of  the  fort  without  producing  any  legal  au- 
thority." He  having,  upon  the  arrival  of  Governor  Sloughter,  turned 
over  the  fori  into  his  hands,  all  that  could  have  been  expected  from 
a  loyal  subject  was  done  by  the  deceased,  and  he  was  declared  free 
from  t  lie  stain  of  high  treason  for  which  he  had  been  put  to  death. 

Il  is  sad  to  observe,  therefore,  the  desperately  murderous  enmity 
which  had  sprung  up  between  fellow  townsmen  in  so  small  a  com- 
munity, and  among  persons  actually  related  by  marriage.  Leisler 
and  Milborne  must  die.  The  deaf  h- warrants  for  the  other  condemned 
men  might  remain  untouched;  theirs  must  be  signed.  It  is  charged 
by  some  historians  that  an  appeal  to  the  King  was  held  back.  It  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  Bayard  or  van  Cortlandt  could  have  been  so 
fiendishly  cruel  as  that.  Sloughter,  however,  declared  that  he  would 
not  sign  their  death-warrant  until  the  King  could  be  heard  from. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


95 


But  he  signed  it  on  May  15,  a  month  and  two  days  after  the  verdict, 
aud  there  were  neither  telegraph  nor  ocean  greyhounds  in  those  days. 
Sloughter  was  a  habitual  drunkard,  it  is  stated,  or  at  least  easily  in- 
duced to  go  too  deeply  into  his  cups.  And  there  was  a  banquet  with 
its  customary  deep  potations  on  or  near  the  day  of  the  fatal  signature. 
Some  tell  of  a  message  to  Bayard  from  Albany  that  the  Mohawks 
could  only  be  conciliated  by  the  removal  of  Leisler,  or  else  the  French 
would  get  the  benefit  of  a  treaty  with  them.  How  shall  we  estimate 
the  value  or  truth  of  all  these  accounts  or  suspicions?  All  we  can 
say  is  there  need  have  been  no  sentence  of  death  if  the  trial  had 
been  dispassionate.  But  if  this  we  could  hardly  expect  under  the 
circumstances,  then  at  least  the  utmost  punishment  that  the  heat  of 
party  spirit  need  have  inflicted  on  Leisler  and  Milborne  was  to  have 
commuted  the  sentence  to  imprisonment,  as  in  the  case  of  the  other 
prisoners.  On  no  theory  can  we  exonerate  from  deliberate  homicidal 
intentions  the  leaders  of  the  faction  against  Leisler. 

On  Thursday.  May  15,  1691,  the  death-warrant  against  Leisler  and 
Milborne  was  signed  by  the  Governor.  On  Saturday,  May  17,  at  an 
early  hour  they  were  led  forth  to  execution.  It  was  a  dreary,  rainy, 
cold  spring  morning,  yet  it  is  said  that  a  great  crowd  of  people  had 
assembled  to  witness  the  sad  spectacle.  It  seems  strange  that  a  spot 
so  distant  from  the  town  was  chosen  for  erecting  the  gallows.  Where 
the  Printing  House  square  now  is,  about  opposite  the  building  of  the 
New  York  Sun,  and  in  later  days  the  site  of  the  original  and  then  re- 
spectable Tammany  Hall,  Leisler  and  Milborne  paid  the  penalty  for 
their  brief  elevation  above  their  fel- 
lowmen.  The  elder  victim,  we  are 
told,  was  in  a  forgiving  mood;  to  the 
last  averred  that  he  would  have  given 
up  the  fort  to  Ingoldsby  had  he  pre- 
sented proper  credentials;  confessed 
such  errors  as  all  flesh  is  liable  to  com- 
mit, and  wished  to  die  at  peace  with 
all,  even  his  enemies.  Milborne  per- 
ceived in  the  crowd  Bobert  Livingston, 
who  had  defied  his  authority  when  he 
acted  as  Leisler's  deputy  at  Albany. 
Aware  how  much  he  had  had  to  do 
with  bringing  about  this  fatal  moment,  he  challenged  him  to  appear- 
before  the  bar  of  God.  Thus  fell  the  first  victims  of  political  hatred 
in  New  York.  They  were  buried  in  a  lot  hard  by  the  scaffold,  be- 
longing to  Leisler's  wife,  and  once  the  property  of  Govert  Loocker- 
mans,  her  father.  But  seven  years  later,  when  all  that  tardy  justice 
could  do  to  wipe  out  the  injury  inflicted  that  day  had  been  done,  the 
remains  were  removed  from  their  place  of  dishonor,  and  buried  with 
honors,  under  the  supervision  of  the  then  Royal  Governor,  the  Earl 


leisler's  tomb. 


96 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  Bellomont,  near  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  on  Garden  street,  now 
Exchange  Place. 

A  change  of  Governors  was  soon  necessary.  Two  months  after 
Leisler's  execution,  Sloughter  died  suddenly.  Was  it  poison?  That 
is  the  supposition  of  the  party  of  the  government.  Was  it  remorse? 
So  say  those  affected  by  the  prejudice  of  the  popular  party.  Cer- 
tainly if  Sloughter  had  signed  the  warrant  against  his  better  convic- 
tions while  stupefied  by  drink,  his  awakening  after  the  fatal  event 
cannot  have  been  to  a  comfortable  state  of  mind.  It  is  told  that  lie 
spurned  the  supplications  of  Leisler's  wife  and  daughter  for  the  lives 
of  their  husbands.  They  had  begged  him  to  give  these  men  but  half 
an  hour's,  but  one  minute's,  hearing,  to  offset  the  exclusively  one- 
sided accounts  which  he  had  alone  permitted  to  come  to  his  ears.  But 
in  vain  was  even  so  reasonable  a  request.  The  recollection  of  such 
an  incident  must  also  have  contributed  to  disturb  his  sober  moments. 
But  as  these  were  all  too  few,  it  may  have  been  after  all  nothing  but 
a  vulgar  delirium  tremens  which  deprived  New  York  of  its  first  Gov- 
ernor under  its  Dutch  King.  He  died  on  July  23,  1691,  and  was 
buried  by  the  courtesy  of  the  Stuyvesant  family  in  their  vault  next  to 
the  remains  of  the  Director. 

The  agitations  produced  by  the  clash  of  parties  which  had  just 
ended  so  fatally  for  the  leaders  of  the  popular  side,  were  not  subdued 
for  several  decades,  and  kept  troubling  the  administrations  of  many 
royal  governors.  These  usually  came  to  their  post  committed  openly 
to  one  party  or  the  other,  which  neither  conduced  to  their  own  com- 
fort or  success,  nor  served  to  allay  the  passions  of  the  contending  cit- 
izens. Governor  Fletcher,  who  arrived  in  August,  1692,  was  the  first 
to  encounter  this  hitherto  unusual  state  of  things,  and  it  was  his  cue 
to  favor  the  aristocratic  or  anti-Leisler  party.  Yet  his  instructions 
compelled  him,  among  his  first  acts,  to  pardon  the  six  members  of 
Leisler's  Council  who  had  received  sentence  of  death,  and  were  wait- 
ing in  prison  for  its  execution.  He  managed,  however,  to  spoil  some 
of  the  effects  of  this  clemency  by  demanding  their  word  of  honor  not 
to  leave  the  Province  without  his  permission.  It  was  to  the  interesl 
of  the  party  Fletcher  wished  to  favor  to  keep  Leisler's  adherents 
from  pleading  their  cause  in  England,  where  a  mere  recital  of  events, 
or  the  report  of  the  outrageous  trial  would  be  certain  to  cause  trou- 
ble for  the  men  in  power  now.  Abraham  Gouverneur,  therefore, 
fled  from  the  city.  Escaping  from  surveillance  by  assuming  a  dis- 
guise, he  look  passage  in  a  fishing  boat  and  went  to  Boston.  Gov- 
ernor Phipps  received  him  cordially  and  encouraged  him  to  go  to 
England  to  plead  his  cause.  Accordingly  he  and  young  Jacob  Leisler 
crossed  the  ocean  and  laid  their  case  before  Parliament  and  the  King, 
with  the  result  already  noted  that  t he  attainder  for  high  treason  was 
reversed,  and  the  estates  of  all  the  condemned  were  restored.  This 
was  in  1695,  and  thus  a  second  time  Fletcher  was  compelled  to  do  a 
favorable  I  urn  to  the  Leislerians. 


1 1 1  STORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


1)7 


Whether  in  spile  of  his  declared  leaning  t<>  the  ether  party,  lie  was 
still  desirous  of  placating  the  people,  and  if  possible  reconcile  the 
factions  by  concessions,  he  certainly  in  one  important  particular  hon- 
ored the  adherents  of  the  defeated  Leisler.  In  lti'.il  Abraham  De 
Peyster  had  been  appointed  .Mayor  by  Sloughter.  In  two  successive 
years,  1692  and  I <">*>:>,  he  was  reappointed  by  Fletcher,  and  in  1<>!>4 
Charles  Lodowick  received  the  appointment.  We  at  once  recognize 
these  names  as  among  those  six  captains  of  militia  who  shared  with 
Leisler  the  responsibility  of  deposing  Nicholson  and  his  council.  In- 
deed, Lodowick  was  the  one  to  whose  lot  it  (ell  to  demand  the  keys  of 
fori  and  city  from  the  Lieutenant-Governor.  «For  the  remainder  of 
Fletcher's  term  the  Mayoralty  was  intrusted  to  Captain  William 
Merritt,  who  was  appointed  three  years  in  succession.  He  was  an 
Englishman  who  gave  up  the  sea  and  became  a  merchant  in  New- 
York  in  Kill .  1  lis  store 
and  residence  were  on 
Broad  street  between 
Stone  and  Marketfield 
streets,  thus  almost  op- 
posite the  outdoor  ex- 
change on  the  bridge 
over  the  canal,  as  long 
as  it  was  held  there.  He 
once  [  L687]  represented 
the  Out  Ward  as  Alder- 
man, living  t  hen  about 
where  Chatham  Square 
is  now.  But  in  L691  he 
is  back  in  the  Dock  corner  broad  street  and  garden  street 
Ward.  It  is  said  that  he  (exchange  place). 

belonged   to  the  anti- 

Leisler  party,  bnt  no  one  can  complain  that  partiality  made  the  Gov- 
ernor select  him  for  Mayor  after  the  two  previous  appointees  to  the 
office. 

A  curious  and  characteristic  feature  of  life  in  New  York  came  to  its 
culmination  during  the  period  we  have  now  under  consideration. 
Xew  York  was  pre-eminently  a  seaport;  from  its  situation  it  could  not 
well  be  anything  else.  All  that  belonged  to  sea-life  in  those  days 
found  ample  reflection  in  the  pursuits  and  ambitions  of  her  citizens. 
There  was  no  encouragement  for  manufacturers.  Enterprise  in  this 
direction  was  systematically  repressed.  Every  attempt  was  met  by 
a  stubborn  refusal  for  many  generations.  "The  prejudice  of  our 
manufactories  at  home"  rose  up  constantly  before  the  minds  of  the 
statesmen  of  the  mother  country;  and  the  people  of  the  colonies  must 
not  be  allowed  to  do  anything  that  would  have  such  a  baneful  effect. 
Yet  in  1708  three-quarters  of  the  linen  stuffs  of  the  coarser  sort  in  use 


98 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in  the  colony  of  Now  York  were  made  by  tin*  people  themselves. 
Doubtless  the  home  work  of  the  women  could  not  be  so  easily  stran- 
gled. Hut  when  one  of  the  Provincial  Council  asked  leave  to  engage 
in  ship  building,  and  showed  to  how  great  advantage  to  England  it 
could  be  carried  on,  Ik*  received  a  flat  refusal.  The  same  policy  of 
taxes  and  restrictions  on  the  colonists,  to  the  advantage  01  England, 
prevailed  ill  the  matter  of  commerce  and  trade.  The  colonies  were 
permitted  to  engage  in  trade  with  England  only,  in  ships  built  in 
England,  commanded  by  English  or  colonial  captains.  The  people 
here  had  to  pay  ;i  tax  of  per  cent,  on  all  goods  exported  or  imported ; 
there  was  also  a  tax  on  trade  between  the  colonies  themselves;  ex- 
ports to  countries  other  than  England  were  forbidden  altogether. 
Now  in  the  course  of  the  frequent  wars  among  the  several  European 
powers,  it  had  come  to  Ik*  ;i  practice  to  tit  out  privateers.  Tin*  New 
York  merchants  engaged  enthusiastically  in  this  business.  A  priva- 
teer might  gel  itself  sent  to  the  bottom ;  but  then  also  it  might  return 
with  the  spoils  of  several  valuable  prizes,  and  in  such  ;i  case  the 
profits  on  the  original  investment  were  enormous.  So  the  risks  were 
frequently  taken.  Bui  when  war  languished  profits  grew  less.  It 
was  then  that  the  privateers  ventured  upon  more  questionable  pro- 
ceedings. They  still  brought  in  valuable  cargoes  of  all  sorts,  and  it 
soon  began  to  be  whispered  about  that  i  he  privateers  had  become 
pirates.  No  very  searching  inquiries  were  made.  The  captains  who 
brought  home  rich  prizes,  on  which  vast  profits  were  made  by  the 
merchants  who  sent  them  out,  were  treated  with  great  consideration 
by  all  classes  of  citizens.  The  crews  often  gave  trouble  and  occa- 
sioned riots  in  the  streets,  but  this  only  added  piquancy  and  stir  to 
the  life  of  the  seaport  But  in  order  to  realize  the  greater  profits,  it 
was  necessa  rv  to  evade  t  he  cust oin -house  officers,  and  so  a  brisk  career 
of  smuggling  was  added  to  the  other  accomplishments  of  tin*  mer- 
chant marine.  Cooper's  "  Waterwitch  "'  makes  us  acquainted  with 
one  of  those  gallant  skippers,  who  might  be  privateer,  pirate,  and 
smuggler  combined.  .Many  of  the  younger  sons  of  merchants  had 
gained  experience  of  a  varied  kind  on  the  ships  of  their  sires.  The 
most  approved  course  usually  pursued  was  to  load  a  ship  with  goods 
for  exchange  or  sale  on  the  island  id'  .Madagascar.  Rum  costing  two 
shillings  per  gallon  in  New  York  would  fetch  fifty  to  sixty  shillings  in 
Madagascar.  A  pipe  of  Madeira  wine  costing  nineteen  pounds  in 
New  York  could  be  sold  for  three  hundred  pounds  in  that  distant 
island.  Not  that  just  so  much  specie  would  be  given  for  these  articles 
there,  lint  here  was  th<*  rendezvous  of  the  pirates  or  buccaneers  of 
the  Indian  ocean,  and  the  goods  they  offered  in  exchange  were  ex- 
tremely costly.  Frederick  Philipso  and  others  of  his  rank  and  class 
found  great  returns  in  such  investments,  and  many  a  ship  was  fitted 

out  by  them  for  the  Madagascar  trade. 

So  open  had  been  the  countenance  given  to  these  questionable 


HISTORY  OF  Til K  CRKATKK  \  KW  YORK 


transactions  by  Governor  Fletcher,  that  it  resulted  in  his  recall,  and 
the  Earl  of  Bellomonl  \v;is  made  his  successor  with  express  instruc 
tions  to  suppress  them.  It  is  in  connection  with  this  nobleman  thai 
our  history  comes  upon  that  interesting  and  romantic  individual, 
Captain  William  Kidd,  the  hero  of  legend  and  myth,  of  haunted 
shores  and  phantom  ships.  The  story  begins  in  a  manner  sufficiently 
prosaic.  In  order  to  rid  the  seas  of  the  pirates  that  infested  them  in 
every  direction,  Captain  Kidd,  known  as  a  bold  and  skillful  mariaer, 
was  provided  with  a  good  ship  at  a,  generous  expense,  so  that  she 
might  be  well  equipped  for  her  perilous  serv  ice.  Several  individuals 
shared  the  burden  of  this  outfit,  among  them' no  less  a  person  than 
King  William  III.  The  Karl  of  Bellomont,  not  as  yet  Governor,  some 
other  English  noblemen,  and  Robert  Livingston,  of  the  New  York 
colony,  also  formed  a  part  of  this  unique  company.  Of  course  the 
treasures  Kidd  should  recover  from  the  vanquished  pirates  would 
serve  as  a  return  for  their  investment  in  this  laudable  enterprise. 
Captain  Kidd  did  hue  work,  lie  started  in  October,  1696,  and  for  a 
while  captured  pirate  after  pirate  on  the  Atlantic,  duly  reporting  his 
achievements  from  time  to  time.  But  it  was  a  fatal  moment  for  him 
when  he  went  into  the  Indian  ocean  and  breathed  the  air  of  .Mada- 
gascar. He  now  changed  vessels  and  became  a  pirate  himself.  It 
may  be  suspected  he  had  had  a  taste  of  that  profession  before,  and 
that,  because  a  thief  was  set  at  catching  thieves,  the  original  plan 
appeared  so  feasible.  On  his  return  to  America  it  was  his  fate  to  be 
captured  by  one  of  the  partners  in  the  enterprise  as  first  conceived. 
The  Earl  of  Bellomont  was  now  Governor  of  New  York  and  Massa- 
chusetts, and  before  him,  at  Boston,  Kidd  was  brought  on  duly  6,1699. 
He  had  sought  to  evade  arrest  by  hiding  among  the  bays  of  Long 
Island  Sound.  At  Block  Island  and  Gardiner's  Island  he  had  spent 
some  time,  and  met  with  friends  or  relatives.  Before  he  finally 
made  up  his  mind  to  cast  himself  upon  the  mercy  of  Bellomont,  it  is 
said  he  buried  his  treasure  on  Gardiner's  Island.  He  made  no  secret 
of  it  before  the  proper  authorities,  and  the  treasure  was  duly  removed 
later.  But  the  rumors  of  this  proceeding  went  through  tin1  colonics, 
and  down  to  this  day  anxious  searchers  have  hoped  to  find  pots  of 
gold  and  silver  coins  anywhere  along  the  northern  or  southern 
shores  of  the  Sound.  Kidd's  piracy  was  too  clearly  proved  to  leave  a 
doubt  of  it,  or  to  make  it  possible  for  the  great  people  who  had  sent 
him  forth  upon  an  honest  quest  to  save  him  from  the  gallows.  He 
was  executed  in  May,  1701. 

It  is  pleasant  to  turn  from  this  somewhat  exciting  topic  of  the 
pirates,  involving  in  discredit  the  most  noted  and  highly  placed  citi- 
zens as  well  as  Governor  Fletcher  himself,  to  an  act  that  was  entirely 
meritorious.  Fletcher  was  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  as  well  as  of 
Xew  York,  and  he  had  at  one  time  been  called  to  Philadelphia  to  ex- 
ercise judicial  functions  at  the  trial  of  a  Philadelphia  printer,  Will- 


100 


HISTORY  OF  THK  ORKATER  NEW  YORK 


iam  Bradford,  who  had  printed  something  to  the  distaste  «»f  the 
Quaker  authorities.  Fletcher  seized  the  opportunity  to  invite  Brad- 
ford to  settle  in  New  York  City,  transferring  Ins  presses  and  work- 
men thither.  At  Fletcher's  instance  he  was  offered  a  salary  of  forty 
pounds  per  annum,  over  and  above  what  he  mighl  earn  at  the  exer- 
cise of  his  trade.  This  w  as  a  very  commendable  proceeding.  While 
printing  had  been  introduced  at  Boston  and  Philadelphia  long  before 
this,  it  was  here  first  thai  it  was  encouraged  by  government  aid,  and 
that  the  printer  who  established  himself  was  recognized  as  an  official 
of  the  colony.    The  council's  resolution  creating  the  office  was  dated 

March,  1693.  In  April  Brad- 
ford had  already  begun  his 
work,  establishing  his  shop 
on  Hanover  Square,  corner 
of  William  Street,  and  sev- 
eral pamphlets  and  placards 
proceeded  from  his  press 
during  this  year,  lie  lived 
to  a  good  old  age,  as  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  note  in  fol- 
io \vi ng  chapters.  Thirty-t  wo 
years  after  his  settlement  in  our  city,  he  began  the  issue  of  the  tirst 
New  York  newspaper.   In  L 693  he  was  just  thirty  years  of  age. 

It  was  during  Fletcher's  time  that  the  "Bolting"  monopoly, 
granted  under  Andros  sixteen  years  before,  and  enlarged  by  Dongan, 
was  finally  abolished,  against  the  strenuous  opposition  of  the  city 
fathers.  They  showed  w  hat  prosperity  had  come  to  the  city  from  tin1 
monopoly,  and  presaged  disaster  from  its  abolishment.  But  the 
measure  bore  too  heavily  against  the  outlying  towns,  and  New  York 
has  managed  to  survive  and  prosper  without  it.  New  streets  were 
added  about  this  time.  In  L696  Maiden  Lane  was  laid  out,  the  tirst 
street  to  be  ventured  on  outside  of  Wall  street;  and  at  t  he  same  time 
Nassau  Street  was  begun  as  a  cartway.  It  was  indicated  by  a  rather 
lengthy  description:  "the  street  that  runs  by  the  piewoman's,  lead 
ing  to  the  city  commons."  The  name  of  Kip  Street  was  tirst  applied 
to  it.  The  tirst  bridge  that  ever  connected  this  island  with  the  main- 
land, or  ot  her  islands,  w  as  built  in  L 693  by  Frederick  Philipse.  Pro- 
vided he  would  build  a  substantial  drawbridge  over  the  Spuyten 
Duyvil  creek,  connecting  his  manor  of  Philipseburg  with  .Manhattan, 
the  Common  Council  permitted  him  to  charge  certain  specified  fares 
for  passsengers,  wagons,  and  cattle.  From  time  to  time  proclama- 
tions would  be  issued  by  the  Governor  in  English  and  Dutch,  per- 
mitting collections  of  money  to  be  made  for  the  ransom  of  citizens 
from  the  hands  of  Turks,  Moors,  or  pirates.  In  apprehension  of  an 
incursion  of  French  and  Indians  from  Canada,  the  old  palisades  on 
Wall  Street  were  again  repaired,  and  a  part  of  the  Battery  Bark 


FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  OF  BRADFORD. 


M  EDISON    w  i  m  i  poi  BTH    w  Ini 


HISTORY   OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


101 


filled  in,  so  as  to  make  a  platform  for  the  planting  of  cannon  in  front 
of  the  fort,  whence  both  the  Eas1  and  the  North  rivers  could  be  com- 
manded. In  L69T  the  important  matter  of  lighting  the  streets  was 
first  attended  to.  At  every  seventh  house  a  pole  was  projected 
over  the  roadway,  from  which  was  suspended  a  lantern  with  a  can- 
dle. When  there  was  a.  "  light  moon  "  the  Lantern  was  not  hung  out ; 
and  the  expense  was  further  lightened  by  each  of  the  seven  houses 
sharing  the  burden  of  it.  A  night-watch  of  lour  men,  carrying  t  he  old 
rattle  as  of  yore,  patrolled  the  streets  at  night,  to  render  the  slum- 
bers of  the  citizens  more  secure.  , 

New  York  during  the  earlier  years  of  Governor  Fletcher's  term 
had  a  population  of  about  four  thousand  souls.  It  was  natural  that 
it  was  thought  the  time  had  come  for  more  extensive  church  accom- 
modations. Still  did  the  Dutch  and  English  congregations  repair  to 
the  old  church  in  the  fort,  and  take  their  turns  at  worship  in  the  now 
somewhat  dilapidated  edifice,  which  had  attained  the  venerable  age 
of  half-a-century.  As  soon  as  it  was  vacated  Governor  Fletcher 
spent  1)00  pounds  for  repairs  in  order  to  put  it  into  good  condition 
for  use  as  a  Chapel  for  the  garrison.  It  was  therefore  a  matter  of 
necessity  much  more  than  one  of  pride  which  induced  the  Dutch  con- 
gregation to  think  of  building  a  new  Church, — its  appearance  to  be 
somewhat  more  in  accord  with  their  increased  wealth,  and  its  size 
more  adapted  to  their  increased  numbers.  In  April,  1088,  with  this 
object  in  view,  the  Board  of  Elders  and  Deacons  had  requested  Gov 
ernor  Dongan  that,  "  under  the  name  and  style  of  the  Minister  or  Min- 
isters, Elders,  and  Deacons  of  the  Protestant  Reformed  Dutch  Church," 
he  would  grant  them  incorporation,  so  that  they  as  a  body  might  be 
"  capable  in  law  to  have,  hold,  and  enjoy  lands  and  tenements. v  For 
it  was  necessary  to  go  outside  of  the  fort,  and  land  must  be  acquired 
for  the  new  Church.  Where  should  they  go?  There  was  a  new  street 
parallel  to  Wall,  and  south  of  it,  branching  off  from  Broad  just  at  the 
point  where  the  head  of  its  canal  used  to  be.  It  was  called  Garden 
Street,  for  there  were  not  many  houses  on  it  yet,  mostly  gardens. 
The  widow  of  Domine  Drisius  had  an  orchard  there,  and  for  a  merely 
nominal  sum  she  offered  a  piece  of  ground  sufficient  for  the  Church. 
But  it  was  objected  that  it  was  too  far  uptown!  The  majority  of  the 
officers  or  people,  however,  determined  to  build  there.  It  was  pos- 
sible the  town  might  grow  up  around  the  vicinity  of  the  Church:  it 
was  possible  it  might  grow  even  beyond  that  distant  region!  So  in 
that  wild  hope  the  widow's  land  was  bought  in  1690.  But  the  con- 
struction was  not  begun  till  some  time  after,  for  the  church  was  not 
ready  for  services  till  1693,  and  even  then  it  was  not  quite  finished. 
Fortunately  there  is  a  record  of  its  cost  and  of  its  exact  appearance, 
matters  of  no  small  interest  as  we  consider  that  this  church  was  the 
first  specimen  of  ecclesiastical  architecture  that  is  worthy  of  the 
name  in  our  city,  now  adorned  by  so  many  structures  that  may  well 


102 


HISTORY  OF  Till-   GRKATKR  NEW  YORK. 


challenge  tlic  admiral  ion  of  the  world.  Its  total  cost  as  estimated 
in  1695  when  it  was  fully  done,  was  l>4.17N  Horins  or  s27,<!71.  and  a 
contemporary  manuscript  furnishes  the  following  description  of  it: 
"  It  was  an  oblong  square,  with  three  sides  uf  an  octagon  on  the  east 
side.  I  n  t  lie  front  it  had  a  brick  steeple,  on  a  large  square  fouudat  ion. 
so  as  to  admit  a  room  above  t  he  ent  ry  for  a  consistory  room.  The  win- 
dows of  t  he  church  were  small  panes  of  glass  set  in  lead.  The  most  of 
them  had  coats  of  arms  of  those  who  had  been  elders  and  magis- 
trates." It  is  said  the  church  would  seat  twelve  hundred  people  and 
Domine  Selyns's  preaching  was  so  much  liked  that  the  pews  were 
tilled  every  Sunday,  lie  was  getting  along  in  years,  so  that  he  needed 
an  assistant :  but  ao  additional  pastor  was  called  until  1C>!)!>.  two  years 
before  his  death,  w  hen  Domine  Gualterus  (Walter)  Du  Bois  began  a 
pastorate  which  was  destined  to  exceed  half  a  century.  Selyns  was  a 
man  of  various  parts;  an  eloquent  speaker;  a  poet  of  some  merit  both 
in  I  Mitch  and  Latin;  and  he  had  a  keen  eye  for  the  temporal  interests 
of  the  church.  It  was  due  to  his  efforts  that  the  Dutch  Church 
obtained  a  charter  in  HiJMi;  and  that  charter  saved  it  -and 
every  other  Dutch  Church  that  secured  one  in  imitation  of  New 
York's  example — from  serious  annoyance  if  not  actual  destruc- 
tion. Fletcher  had  come  over  to  America  full  of  the  idea  of  establish- 
ing the  Church  of  England,  lie  repeatedly  sought  to  force  an  act 
through  the  Assembly  which  would  have  compelled  t  he  appointment 
of  vestrymen  and  wardens  in  every  community,  and  enforced  the  col- 
lection of  tithes  for  an  established  ministry.  Had  this  gone  through 
the  members  of  Dutch,  French,  Lutheran  and  other  Churches  would 
have  had  to  support  ministers  of  the  English  Church,  as  well  as  their 
own,  and  this  double  support  of  the  Gospel  could  hardly  have  been 
long  kept  up.  Domine  Selyns  saw  the  danger  ahead,  prepared  and 
secured  his  charter  before  the  act  was  passed;  and  by  virtue  of  it  the 
Dutch  Chinch  was  enabled  to  hold  property,  and  could  collect  tithes 
from  its  members  for  the  support  of  their  ow  n  ministers,  l  hereby  ex- 
cluding such  demands  for  ministers  of  any  other  Church. 

If  t  he  Dutch  people  began  to  find  the  Church  in  the  fori  unsuitable, 
so  did  the  English  congregation.  Hence  steps  wore  soon  under  way 
for  the  erection  of  a  building  for  the  services  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. A  petition  for  aid  in  the  matter  was  addressed  to  Governor 
Fletcher,  and  he  granted  permission  to  collect  moneys,  and  also  gave 
the  petitioners  a  piece  of  land  to  derive  an  income  from  for  seven 
years  beginning  with  August,  L697.  In  1701  this  laud  was  given  out 
and  out.  It  was  the  property  called  the  King's  Farm,  formerly  the 
West  India  Company's  Farm  or  Garden,  and  it  is  in  the  possession 
of  Trinity  Church  to  tins  day.  Thus  encouraged  the  petitioners  be- 
gan to  build  a  church  on  the  site  now  so  well  known,  opposite  W  all 
Street  on  Broadway,  still  further  uptown  than  the  Dutch  church. 
Hut  it  was  now  lb!>7,  four  years  since  the  other  was  completed.  Be- 


HISTORY  OF  T 


(iUKATKR    XMW  Y<>KK. 


103 


fore  Trinity  Church  was  done  a  rector  was  called,  the  Rev.  William 
Vesey.  Meanwhile  occasionally  the  English  congregation  had  wor- 
shiped in  the  Garden  Street  church,  and  here  when  Mr.  Vesey  had 
been  duly  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  he  was  inducted  into 
the  rectorship  Christmas  day,  K'.'.iT, 
by  the  aid  of  Domine  Selyns,  and  one 
other  Dutch  minister, Domine  Nucella, 
summoned  from  Kingston  for  thai 
purpose  by  the  Governor.  In  Febru- 
ary, L698,  the  first  of  Trinity's  edifices 
was  ready.  It  was  altered  and  en- 
larged in  IToT,  and  stood  until  de- 
stroyed  by  fire  iu  1770.  It  had  a  very 
tall  steeple,  which  is  said  r 


to  have  been  badly  con- 
structed, and  "  fell  by  its 
own  weight  "  in  1708.  The 
chapel  in  the  fort  was  now 
reserved  for  the  garrison 
only,  and  the  Rev.  John 
Miller  was  the  chaplain 
t  here. 

In  1088  the  numbers  of 
the  French  refugees  had 
so  increased  that  they  put 
up  a  small  building  in 
Market  field  Street  for 
their    religious  services, 


GARDEN  STREET  (EXCHANGK  PLACE)  CHURCH, 
1693. 


English.  Bui 
was  made  bv 


thus  leaving  the  church-in-the-forl  to  the  Dutch  and 
prospering  as  the  years  went  by,  a  next  advance 
the  building  of  a  substantial  church  of  quarry  stone  in  Pine  Street 
near  Nassau.  A  square  tower  like  a  campanile  stood  up  against 
the  side  Avail,  a  little  octagonal  extension  by  its  side  giving 
access  to  the  interior.  The  cornerstone  was  laid  on  July  8,  1704.  So 
that  at  the  close  of  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  treating,  New 
Yorkers  rejoiced  in  the  possession  of  three  church  edifices  of  quite  re- 
spectable appearance,  besides  the  renovated  chapel  in  the  fort. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  three  of  the  governors  who  ruled  the 
Province  and  resided  at  New  York  during  the  period  to  which  we 
have  restricted  ourselves  in  this  chapter,  belonged  to  the  peerage  of 
Great  Britain:  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  Viscount  Cornbury  (who  be- 
came Earl  Clarendon  before  he  left  the  country),  and  Lord  Lovelace, 
Baron  of  Hurley.  Of  these  the  first  and  1  hird  were  men  of  the  highest 
character.  Bellomont  was  in  hearty  sympathy  with  popular  rights, 
and  sided  strongly  with  the  Leislerian  party.  His  integrity  was  full 
proof  against  the  temptations  to  condone  piracy  and  custom-house 


104 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER   NEW  YORK. 


evasions,  io  which  Fletcher  had  succumbed.  Hut.  of  course  liis  faith- 
fulness to  duty  in  these  particulars  hardly  conduced  to  his  popu- 
larity. Yet  on  his  death  in  March,  1701,  there  was  a  universal  expres- 
sion of  grief  and  appreciation  of  his  real  worth.  In  New  England  a 
fast  day  was  appointed.  The  Kail  was  buried  in  a  leaden  coffin  in 
the  chapel  in  the  fort,  and  in  1790,  when  the  fort  was  taken  down 
finally,  the  coffin  was  removed  to  St.  Paul's  churchyard.  It  is  a  curi- 
ous coincidence  that  Lord  Lovelace  also  met  with  his  death  at  his 
|»ost.  He  arrived  in  the  winter  of  1708-9,  one  of  the  severest  in  the 
history  of  our  country  and  of  Europe.  His  vessel  having  been  driven 
up  into  Buzzard's  Hay  by  a  Storm,  he  came  down  the  Sound  toward 
New  York.  Bui  the  ice  in  the  Hast  River  was  so  solid  that  he  was 
compelled  to  land  at  Flushing,  tale  a  long,  slow  ride  through  drifts 
of  snow  over  Long  Island  roads  to  the  ferry,  and  spend  a  tedious  and 
chilling  time  crossing  the  ice-choked  river,  lie  was  accompanied  by 
his  wife  and  three  sons.  Before  five  months  were  gone  two  of  these 
sons  and  Lord  Lovelace  himself  had  fallen  victims  to  some  pulmonary 
complaint,  perhaps  pneumonia,  contracted  during  these  wintry  ex- 
periences. 

Of  these  three  peers,  of  whom  the  two  just  mentioned  were  among 
the  best  governors  ever  sent,  over,  Lord  Oombury  enjoys  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  by  far  the  worst  as  Governor  and  the  unworthiesl  as  a 
man,  who  ever  ruled  this  province.  In  17112  King  William  111.  was 
succeeded  by  Queen  Anne,  and  Anne's  mother  was  the  sister  of  Lord 
Clarendon,  Cornbury's  father.  This  cl<$se  relationship  with  royalty 
made  him  excessively  vain.  It  had  not  prevented  him  from  shame- 
lessly deserting  his  uncle,  .lames  II.  lie  exhibited  the  same  utter 
absence  of  gratitude  and  common  decency  soon  after  his  arrival. 
During  the  first  summer  of  his  residence  in  New  York  a  pestilence 
visited  the  city.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  earliest  infliction  of 
the  yellow  fever  SCOUrge  so  often  destined  to  deplete  our  population, 
a  ship  from  the  island  of  St .  Thomas  in  the  West  Indies  spreading  t he 
contagion.  Cornbury  and  family  and  all  the  Council  tied  to  Jamaica, 
L.  I.  The  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  there,  the  Rev.  .Mr.  Hub- 
bard, at  once  vacated  his  commodious  parsonage  to  accommodate  the 
Governor,  contenting  himself  with  more  inconvenient  quarters.  A 
year  or  more  later  Cornbury  gave  orders  to  the  Sheriff  to  dispossess 
the  pastor  and  people  of  church  ami  manse  and  glebe,  and  turn  them 
over  to  the  use  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  on  the  ground  that  "the 
Church  and  Parsonage  having  been  built  by  Public  Act."  i.e.,  the 
Assembly  under  Fletcher  having  given  them  permission,  like  the 
Dutch  Church,  to  collect  tithes  from  their  members  to  finish  the 
building  and  pay  the  minister,-  "it  could  belong  to  none  but  the 
Church  of  England."  It  was  not  till  172s  that  the  Presbyterians  gol 
back  their  own  again  permanently.  Of  a  piece  with  this  exhibition 
of  conscienceless  bigotry  was  the  imprisonment  of  two  Presbyterian 


HISTORY  OR  THE  GREAT  ICR  X 1CW  YORK. 


L05 


ministers  in  New  York  in  1707.  The  Revs.  -John  Hampton  of  Mary- 
land and  Francis  Makemie  of  Virginia  passed  through  the  city  on 
their  way  to  Boston.  The  Presbyterians  had  as  yd  no  church  in  New 
York,  but  held  their  services  in  private  houses.  Bui  no  sooner  did  I  he 
Dutch  and  French  people  learn  of  the  presence  in  town  of  these  two 
divines,  than  they  at  once  offered  them  the  use  of  their  churches  to 
preach  in  on  the  next  Sunday,  provided  they  would  obtain  the 
Governor's  consent.  As  they  were  licensed  to  preach  in  their  respec- 
tive provinces  they  declined  to  ask  permission.  Makemie  pleached  at 
a  private  house  in  the  city,  and  Hampton  in  thje  church  at  Newtown, 
L.  I.  For  this  they  were  cast  into  prison  by  Cornbury.  Their  trial 
resulted  in  their  acquittal,  but  not  till  after  they  had  suffered  seven 
weeks  of  confinement.  The  proceeding  wrought  up  the  citizens  of 
every  persuasion  to  such  a  pitch  of  indignation  that  the  cowardly 
Cornbury  took  fright,  and  sought  to  justify  himself  for  his  action  be- 
fore the  Lords  of  Trade  in  England. 

But  the  people  of  New  York  had  far  more  serious  complaints 
against  their  "noble"  Governor.  He  was  thoroughly  corrupt  in 
money  matters.  Funds  raised  by  subscription  among  the  citizens  to 
erect  fortifications  at  the  Narrows  and  other  points  in  the  harbor, 
were  fraudulently  diverted  by  Cornbury  to  his  own  use.  He  con- 
tracted debts  right  and  left,  which  he  could  not  be  made  to  pay  while 
in  office.  Immediately  upon  his  recall  his  creditors  caused  his  arrest 
and  imprisonment;  but  that  is  all  the  satisfaction  they  obtained;  for 
while  thus  in  prison  his  father  died,  making  him  Ear]  of  Clarendon 
and  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords.  He  was  now  exempt  by  Eng- 
lish law  from  being  held  for  debt;  and  he  took  advantage  of  this  law 
to  leave  the  country  without  paying  those  whom  he  owed.  Judge 
William  Smith,  a  contemporary,  in  his  history  of  New  York  sums  up 
Cornbury's  career  in  the  following  unmistakable  terms:  "  We  never 
had  a  Governor  so  universally  detested,  nor  any  who  so  richly  de- 
serves the  public  abhorrence.  In  spite  of  his  noble  descent,  his  be- 
havior was  trilling,  mean,  and  extravagant.  It  was  not  uncommon 
for  him  to  dress  in  a  woman's  habit,  and  then  to  patrol  the  fori  in 
which  he  lived.  Such  freaks  of  low  humor  exposed  him  to  the  univer- 
sal contempt  of  the  whole  people.  Their  indignation  w  as  kindled  by 
his  despotic  rule,  savage  bigotry,  insatiable  avarice  and  injustice, 
not  only  to  the  public,  but  even  his  private  creditors." 

In  1700,  the  closing  year  of  the  seventeenth  century,  New  York  had 
a  population  of  about  forty-two  hundred  souls.  The  bounds  formerly 
set  to  it  by  the  palisades  along  Wall  Street,  had  now  been  exceeded 
from  time  to  time.  Along  Broadway,  ami  Maiden  Lane,  and  Nassau 
Street,  houses  were  going  up.  And  the  appearance  of  these  houses 
was  very  attractive.  They  were  now  mostly  built  of  brick,  of  various 
colors  sometimes,  and  tastefully  or  curiously  arranged  in  blocks,  or 
squares,  or  diamonds,  of  different  hues.    Garden  Street  Church  and 


L06 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Trinity  <>n  Broadway  lent  dignity  to  the  growing  city;  and  it  \v;is 
qow  fell  t  li.it  ii  municipal  building  of  some  pretension  should  take  the 
place  of  the  old  Oity  Ball  which  had  done  service  since  1  <>."»:>,  and 
\v;is  buill  for  a  tavern  or  hotel  as  long  ago  as  1(»42.    It  had  become 

unt  il  were  accustomed  to  meet 
at  the  house  of  a  private  citi- 
/.  e  u  a  e  x  t  door.  Ex-Mayor 
Abraham  De  Peyster  owned 
several  lots  on  the  north  side 
Of  Wall  Street,  and  he  donated 

to  the  city  one  facing  Broad 
for  the  purpose  of  erecting  a 
< Jity  Hall  upon  it.  Funds  were 
raised  by  selling  the  old  build- 
in"  (bought  by  one  John  Rod- 
man for  !»L'(>  pounds)  and  mort- 
gaging the  terry  lease  for  fif- 
teen rears.  Work  was  begun 
in  Kit*!)  and  completed  in  1700. 
It  stood  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  Sub-Treasury  Building,  was 
honored  in  being  used  as  the  lirst  Capitol  for  the  sessions  of  the 
Congress  of  the  Republic,  and  here  Washington  was  inaugurated 
in  L789.  The  original  building  was  two  stories  high,  with  a  portico 
between  two  projecting  wings.  On  the  second  story  were  the  rooms 
for  the  Common  Council  and  the  Provincial  Council  in  either  wing, 
while  the  court -room  was  in  t  he  cent  ral  part.  In  t  he  cellar  were  cells 
for  the  imprisonment  of  offenders. 

Scarce  was  this  building  a  year  old  when  it  became  t  In*  scene  pf  a 
serious  municipal  contest,  growing  out  of  the  division  of  the  citizens 
into  the  two  parties  of  the  Leislerians  and  anti-Leislerians.  In 
the  year  1700  Isaac  Do  Riemor  was  Mayor,  lie  w  as  connected  by  an- 
cestry with  the  Convenient'  family,  and  was  himself  of  the  Leisler 
party.  In  1701  Thomas  Xoell,  an  ant  i-beislerian,  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  .Mayor,  and  Abraham  Gouverneur,  now  the  husband  of 
Mrs.  .Milborne,  I.eisler's  daughter,  was  made  Recorder.  The  election 
for  Aldermen  and  Assistants  in  the  various  wards  resulted  in  the  un- 
disputed election  of  anti-Leislerians  in  the  Dock  Ward,  and  of  Leis- 
lerians in  the  Out  Ward  and  North  Ward.  The  results  in  the  other 
three  wards  were  doubtful  and  the  returns  close.  The  l.eislerian  can- 
didates claimed  the  election,  but  fearing  that  the  new  .Mayor  would 
refuse  to  concede  it  and  decline  It)  administer  the  oaths,  they  had 
themselves  sworn  in  by  the  retiring  Mayor,  who  was  of  their  party. 
Mayor  Noel!  as  promptly  administered  the  oaths  to  the  anti-beisler- 
ian  candidates  of  the  disputed  wards.  Thus  there  were  two  sets  of 
Councilmen  w  ho  claimed  to  be  duly  inducted.  No  business  could  be 
done  at  the  lirst  session  in  October.    Tn  November  matters  had  not 


unlit  for  use,  and  t  he  ( Jourts  and  ( ' 


CITY  BALL, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


107 


grown  more  pacific;  twenty  members  instead  of  the  proper  twelve 
took  their  seats  in  the  Council  room,  and  business  was  again  at  a 
standstill.  The  .Mayor  now  gave  the  decision  into  the  hands  of  the 
Provincial  Court,  and  the  Chief  Justice  allayed  the  trouble  in  Decem- 
ber by  seating  the  Leislerian  candidates  of  the  East  Ward,  and  the 
ant i-Leislerians  of  the  West  and  South  Wards,  Leaving  the  Council 
evenly  divided  between  the  two  parties. 

Another  echo  of  the  fatal  clash  of  parties  earlier  in  this  period  was 
heard  after  the  death  of  Bellomont.  The  Earl  had  taken  decisive 
ground  against  the  enemies  of  Leisler,  and  had  himself  honored  by 
his  presence  the  reburial  of  Leisler's  and  Milborne's  remains  in  the 
Garden  Street  churchyard.  But  his  hand  was  strong  enough  to  re- 
strain excessive  reactionary  vengeance  on  the  part  of  those  now  in 
power.  No  sooner  was  he  dead  than  the  Leislerian  majority  in  the 
Council  and  Assembly  seized  the  opportunity  to  do  violence  to  their 
old  opponents,  liobert  Livingston  was  expelled  from  the  Council, 
and  his  property  confiscated,  while  Nicholas  Bayard  was  arraigned 
for  treason  on  the  ground  of  a  law  he  had  himself  been  the  means  of 
enacting  in  order  to  condemn  Leisler.  On  March  9,  1701,  Bayard  was 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  death.  Yet  it  must  have  been  intended  to 
frighten  him  rather  than  really  destroy  him.  The  trial  was  allowed 
to  linger  on.  A  reprieve  was  granted  so  the  King  could  be  heard 
from,  but  yet  not  until  a  humiliating  confession  had  been  forced  from 
him.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Bayard  was  a  coward,  which  may 
account  for  his  cruelty  in  the  case  of  Leisler.  He  cringed  to  the  latter 
when  his  life  seemed  in  danger  in  1690,  and  was  pardoned;  he  did  the 
same  thing  now  under  the  influence  of  terror  and  to  save  himself  from 
death.  The  reprieve  meant  his  eventual  safety:  for  Cornbury  came 
armed  with  instructions  to  release  and  restore  him  immediately  upon 
his  arrival  in  the  province. 

At  the  close  of  this  period  we  have  reached  the  end  of  the  first  full 
century  since  the  discovery  of  the  Hudson  in  1(509.  Enormous  as  is 
the  difference  in  conditions  between  1710  and  1S97,  yet  surely  during 
that  first  round  century  great  changes  had  also  taken  place.  The 
lonely  wilderness,  echoing  only  to  the  song  of  birds  or  the  whoop  of 
the  savage1,  now  possessed  evidences  of  civilization  and  cultivation  in 
every  direction.  Upon  Manhattan  Island  a  compact  town  with 
nearly  a  thousand  houses  had  established  itself,  containing  a  pop- 
ulation of  nearly  six  thousand  souls,  carrying  on  a  brish  trade  which 
filled  her  one  dock  or  basin  with  small  craft,  and  lined  her  yet 
limited  shores  with  many  a  larger  vessel.  Encroachments  upon  the 
river  had  already  commenced,  and  Water  Street  ran  from  Old  Slip  to 
John  Street,  rendering  the  old  "  Strand  *'  along  Pearl  an  inland 
thoroughfare,  with  houses  on  both  sides.  The  paving  of  the  streets 
began  to  be  attended  to.  Usually  broad,  flat,  and  very  red  bricks  were 
laid  as  a  sidewalk  nearest  the  houses.    Then  followed,  on  the  same 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


10!) 


level,  the  pavement  of  cobble  stones  for  the  ruder  traffic  of  wagons. 
The  gutter  was  thereby  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  street,  conveying 
the  rain  to  the  fire-wells  or  cisterns  in  the  center  of  Broad  Street, 
Broadway,  and  Wall  Street.  While  hogs  were  useful  ;is  scavengers, 
and  served  the  city  thus  till  far  into  the  nineteenth  century,  yet  even 
at  this  time  the  problem  was  also  intrusted  to  human  ingenuity,  and 
men  appointed  (a  woman,  too,  at  one  time)  to  see  thai  garbage  was  re- 
moved. With  comfort  in  travel  by  pavements,  and  cleanliness  in 
looks,  came  also  the  desire  for  beauty,  and  people  were  permitted  and 
encouraged  to  plant  trees  in  front  of  their  residences;  but  they  must 
not  endanger  travel  in  the  dark  by  putting  up  tie-posts.  Againsl  fire, 
protection  was  sought  not  only  by  the  seven  large  cisterns,  but  fire 
wardens  were  appointed  who  were  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  chim- 
neys, and  to  take  a  look  at  the  hearths  inside  the  people's  homes. 
These  hearths,  by  the  way,  are  worth  a  moment's  attention.  <  )ne  who 
had  access  to  many  Newr  York  homes  in  1704  writes  of  them  with  en- 
thusiasm and  admiration.  "  The  TT earth  is  of  Tyles  and  is  as  fai  r  out 
into  the  Boom  at  the  Ends  as  before  the  fire,  \vch  is  Generally  Five 
foot  in  the  Low'r  rooms,  and  the  piece  over  where  the  mantle  tree 
should  be  is  made  as  onrs  with  Joyner's  work,  .  .  .  the  hearths 
were  laid  wth  the  finest  tile  that  T  ever  see,  .  .  .  and  so  are  the 
walls  of  the  Kitchen  wch  had  a  brick  floor."  The  price  of  building 
lots  was  about  thirty  pounds,  and  gradually  the  farms  beyond  Wall 
Street  Avere  being  cut  Tip  into  these.  The  city  had  not  come  quite  as 
far  as  the  Collect  Pond  yet,  but  a  point  of  land  jutting  out  into  this 
deep  and  clear  water  was  purchased  by  someone  in  1703  for  one  hun- 
dred pounds.  Ere  tin1  solitude  was  here  broken  the  place  was  the 
resort  of  anglers  or  idlers  or  lovers  of  nature.  The  ferry  to  Long- 
Island  was  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  city:  it  was  usually  leased  for  a 
term  of  years,  and  yielded  a  sum  of  from  one  to  two  hundred  pounds 
per  year.  A  ferry-house  was  built  by  the  city  at  tin1  landing-place  on 
Long  Island. 

Tt  was  under  Kieft  in  1638  that  negro  slaves  were  first  brought  to 
New  York  City.  There  was  hardly  a  family  that  did  not  have  from 
half  a  dozen  to  a  dozen  or  more  in  their  service,  as  may  be  seen  from  a 
census  of  the  year  1703.  At  the  death  of  Frederick  Philipse,  the 
richest  citizen,  in  1702,  an  inventory  showed  that  his  household  slaves 
counted  forty.  "White  slaves"  were  also  found  in  plenty;  men  or 
women  who  served  out  their  passage  money,  or  had  bound  themselves 
to  service  without  pay  for  some  other  reason.  Frequent  cases  of 
cruelty  occurred  against  these:  negroes  and  Indians  were  often  wan- 
tonly put  to  death,  so  that  royal  governors  were  repeatedly  instruct- 
ed to  forbid  such  murders  and  punish  them  with  death.  Xegro  slaves 
cost  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  pounds  at  this  period.  The  slave  trade 
was  made  part  of  the  pretext  for  sending  out  ships  to  Madagascar  or 
on  piratical  errands.    A  slave-market  was  established  at  the  foot  of 


110 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Wall  Street,  in  an  <>1<1  blockhouse,  in  1701).  It  is  greatly  to  the  credil 
of  Hector  Vesey,  of  Trinity,  that  he  opened  a  catechising  school  for 
Degroes  in  1704.  Kindness,  however,  \v;is  not  often  resorted  to.  The 
citizens  knew  they  were  introducing  a  dangerous  element  into  their 
midst,  constituting  nearly  one-sixth  of  the  population.  Rules  were 
made  to  hold  the  danger  in  check.  Negroes  and  Indians  were  not 
allowed  1o  collect  in  groups  of  more  than  three  or  four.  They  must 
not  go  abroad  after  dark  without  a  lantern.  It  was  to  be  expected 
that  an  outbreak  would  one  day  occur  as  it.  did  some  thirty  years 
later,  but  many  smaller  acts  of  vengeance  presaged  the  coming  storm. 

Educational  interests  were  advanced  by  the  establishment  of  a 
school  among  the  English.  The  Bishop  of  London  was  petitioned  to 
send  out  a  schoolmaster,  and  in  1705  Andrew  Clarke  came  over,  part 
of  the  proceeds  of  t  he  King's  Farm  being  devoted  to  his  support.  But 
previously  Corn  bury  and  the  Assembly  had  appointed  George  Muir- 
son  to  the  position,  other  English  teachers  conducted  private 
schools,  and  at  least  two  schoolmasters  are  found  among  the  French, 
one  of  whom  also  taught  English.  The  bigotry  of  Cornbury  led  him 
to  attempt  interference  with  the  Dutch  in  their  maintenance  of 
schools  and  appointment  of  teachers,  but  they  had  the  subject  too 
deeply  at  heart  to  be  easily  moved  from  their  purpose  in  going  on 
with  that  work.  They  appealed  to  their  charter,  and  its  provisions 
amply  covered  t he  case. 

.Many  merchants  and  professional  men  had  now  accumulated  a 
competence.  They  had  hue  residences  on  Broadway,  or  Broad  Street 
or  Wall ;  even  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  was  still  fashionable.  Tn  Stone 
Sheet  resided  John  Harpending,  the  leather  merchant,  who  gave  a 
large  tract  of  land  to  the  Duteh  Church,  running  from  Broadway  to- 
ward the  East  River  between  Fulton  and  John  Streets,  the  latter  a 
reminder  of  his  Christian  name.  Augustus  Jay,  the  grandfather  of 
the  great  John  Jay,  a  native  of  France,  was  living  in  town,  having 
married  the  daughter  of  Balthazar  Bayard.  Caleb  Heathcote,  son  of 
tin'  Mayor  of  Chester  in  England,  had  come  to  this  "  wild  country  " 
to  assuage  a  heartache,  and  found  consolation  in  the  love  of  the 
daughter  of  William  Smith,  called  Tangier  Smith  to  distinguish  him 
from  Judge  William  Smith.  These,  with  many  a  Duteh  merchant  or 
patroon,  dwelt  in  comfortable  style  in  their  old  colonial  mansions; 
not  so  closely  packed  together  but  that  space  was  permitted  to  gar- 
den, or  orchard,  or  lawn  sloping  down  to  t  he  river's  edge.  They  lived 
in  a  style  of  elegant  abundance  and  generous  hospitality.  Strangers 
were  ever  welcome,  the  wide  halls  always  open  to  receive  them,  and 
the  boards  groaning  with  cheer,  five  or  six  dishes  ready  to  be  served 
at  any  meal,  choice  beer  and  wine  and  cider  to  wash  down  the  eat 
aides.  The  Sabbath  was  not  too  strictly  kept,  yet  decently,  except 
perhaps  in  the  suburbs,  whither  went  forth  the  young  rakes  and  rois- 
terers, mayhap  the  wild  crews  of  privateers  or  slavers  or  buccaneers, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in 


who  recked  little  of  the  laws  of  God  or  man.  There  sonic  anxious 
observers  saw  not  the  "  leas!  footsteps  of  religion  "  ;  and  Sabbaths 
were  speni  "  in  vain  sports  and  lewd  derision."  Bui  even  in  the  city, 
the  gentlemen  and  ladies,  the  tradespeople  and  their  dames,  mighi  be 
seen  on  fine  Sunday  afternoons  walking  out  into  the  woods  near  the 
Collect  Pond  (where  the  Tombs  Prison  recently  stood),  or  down 
around  the  fort,  to  view  tin*  verdant  shores  of  Jersey  or  Staten  or 
Long  Island,  across  the  gleaming  waters  of  the  Pay.  And  as  the 
pedestrians  passed  through  the  streets,  they  would  see  the  residents 
seated  on  the  stoops,  ready  for  a  chat  or  a  genial  word  of  cordial 
friendship.  The  women  loved  finery,  their  fingers  being  beset  with 
rings,  and  rich  pendants  of  gold  or  jewels  hanging  from  their  ears, 
as  in  the  fatherland.  Sunday  would  be  the  day  to  display  these 
choice  possessions  and  adornments.  And  what  harm?  Without  so 
much  ostentation  of  piety  as  was  thrust  into  view  in  other  colonies, 
there  was  a  greater  moral  soundness  at  the  core.  No  better  commen- 
tary can  be  desired  on  the  genuine  worth  of  these  men  and  women  of 
New  York  than  the  testimony  of  one  who  lived  among  t  hem  and  had 
ample  opportunities  of  comparing  them  with  others.  Not  so  strict  in 
keeping  the  Sabbath,  but — they  "  seem  to  deal  w  ith  great  exact  ness  as 
farr  as  I  see  or  Deall  with." 


CHAPTER  V 


[IMMIGRATION  AND  JOURNALISM . 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


113 


of  their  own.  It  was  more  like  modern  immigration;  indeed  the 
first  wave  of  that  which  has  since  attained  the  proportions  of 
a  deluge,  and  from  one  of  those  many  foreign  countries  that  have 
sent  their  myriads  to  these  shores  during  the  present  century.  Ger- 
many, Ireland,  Italy  have  successively  and  generously  bestowed  their 
subjects  upon  us,  supplying  our  Republic  in  general  with  millions  of 
more  or  less  valuable  citizens,  aiding  us  in  drawing  forth  our  natural 
resources  and  converting  them  into  wealth;  and  at  the  same  time 
these  tides  of  immigration  have  left  large  deposits- upon  the  soil  of 
Manhattan  Island  and  vicinity.  It  is  as  the  advance  guard  of  that 
German  immigration  which  has  made  Greater  «New  York  a  city  of  the 
first  rank  among  those  with  German  populations,  that  the  hitherto 
unprecedented  number  of  immigrants  suddenly  precipitated  within 
a  brief  period  upon  the  colony  and  city  early  in  the  18th  century,  be- 
comes interesting  and  noteworthy. 

These  people  all  came  from  one  province  or  section  of  Germany,  the 
Pfalz  or  Palatinate.  Any  one  who  has  stood  before  the  gaping  side 
of  the  "  Gesprengte  Thurm,"  or  Blown-up  Tower,  of  Heidelberg 
Castle,  looks  upon  one  of  the  evidences  of  that  vandalism  and  devasta- 
tion which  drove  forth  the  Palatines  from  their  homes.  Louis  XIV 
bears  the  unenviable  responsibility  for  much  of  the  ruin  of  the  splen- 
did pile  at  Heidelberg.  He  laid  waste  the  country  in  1088.  It  had 
scarce  recovered  from  the  blow  when  war  again  raged  throughout 
this  region,  until  in  1701  the  victory  at  Blenheim  enabled  Marl- 
borough to  force  the  French  to  retreat  from  Germany.  The  Palati- 
nate was  utterly  exhausted  and  impoverished.  For  scores  of  years, 
until  after  the  Revolution,  the  churches  of  Pennsylvania  founded  by 
these  people  had  to  be  supported  out  and  out  by  the  churches  of  Hol- 
land. And  in  the  midst  of  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  "  Queen 
Anne's  War,"  with  England  at  the  head  of  the  combined  powers  in 
their  assault  on  France,  it  was  natural  that  the  suffering  Palatines 
should  look  to  England  for  relief.  Thousands  went  over  to  England, 
and  most  of  these  asked  to  be  transported  to  her  colonies  in  America. 

In  June,  1708,  a  petition  to  that  effect  was  laid  before  Queen  Anne, 
signed  by  the  Rev.  Joshua  Kochertal  in  behalf  of  many  followers. 
Lord  Lovelace  had  just  been  appointed  Governor  of  New  York,  and 
fifty-five  of  these  people,  twenty-nine  adults  and  twenty-six  children, 
were  bestowed  among  the  three  ships  which  formed  the  Governor's 
outfit  for  his  journey.  In  1709  some  hundreds  were  sent  over  at  a  cost 
of  from  three  to  four  pounds  each  for  passage,  besides  being  also  sup- 
plied by  the  English  Government  with  agricultural  implements  and 
building  tools  at  the  rate  of  forty  shillings  a  piece. 

When  Governor  Hunter  arrived  on  July  14,  1710,  he  was  accom- 
panied by  several  vessels  carrying  a  multitude  of  these  Palatine  refu- 
gees. Three  thousand  had  embarked  with  him,  distributed  over  ten 
vessels.    They  all  sailed  together  from  the  harbor  of  Plymouth,  but 


114 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


they  were  soon  scattered  by  a  tierce  storm,  and  they  arrived  at  un- 
equal times  in  New  York  Bay.  Sickness  of  a  contagious  nature  broke 
•  tin  on  several  vessels;  three  hundred  and  thirty  people  were  ill  on  one 
vessel  at  one  time;  four  hundred  and  seventy  died  before  port  was 
reached.  Indeed,  the  Mayor  and  Common  Council  were  so  apprehen- 
sive °f  disease  breaking  out  in  the  city  from  the  landing  of  these  peo- 
ple", that  they  requested  the  Provincial  Council  to  order  them  to  be 
placed  on  Governor's  Island.  Carpenters  were  hastily  set  at  work 
building  huts  for  their  accommodation,  and  for  quite  a  while  the 
Palatines  were  kept  in  a  sort  of  quarantine  on  this  convenient  spot. 
A  month  later  Governor  Hunter  established  courts  there  for  their 
protection.  A  ship  carrying  tools,  tents,  and  other  supplies  for  these 
poor  people  was  wrecked  off  Montauk  Point.  Thus  it  seemed  as  if 
disaster  was  bound  to  attend  the  enterprise  from  beginning  to  end. 
Ultimately  the  greater  portion  of  this  immigration  was  distributed 
among  the  river  counties.  Orange  and  Ulster  and  I  Mitchess.  In  course 
of  time  several  forced  their  way  into  Schoharie  County.  But  a  great 
number  also  remained  in  and  around  New  York.  Sixty-eight  young 
boys  and  girls  were  apprenticed  to  trades  in  New  York  and  on  Long 
Island.  The  large  access  of  fellow-countrymen  also  enabled  the 
Lutherans  to  build  another  church  in  lieu  of  the  one  Captain  Colve 
had  demolished.  It.  was  erected  almost  under  the  shadow  of  Trinity, 
on  the  corner  of  Rector  Street  and  Broadway,  where  afterward  Grace 


new  fork  in  burnet's  day. 

Church  was  built.  When  we  reflect  that  the  largest  number. of  immi- 
grants arriving  at  one  time  before  this  was  one  hundred  in  one  ship, 
and  that  during  the  years  1657  to  H»<!4,  a  period  of  unusually  brisk 
immigration,  the  whole  number  of  arrivals  reached  only  L,132,  we  can 
easily  imagine  that  this  sudden  advent  of  three  thousand  persons  at 
once  must  have  created  quite  a  sensation  in  the  Little  town  of  six 
thousand  inhabitants.  In  the  proportion  of  population  to  immigra- 
tion, such  a  startling  accession  has  never  taken  place  in  our  day,  enor- 
mous as  are  the  numbers  that  arrive  from  vear  to  vear. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


115 


It  is  curious  to  note  that  in  Cooper's  "  W'aterwiteh,"  ( rovernor  Hun- 
ter— carefully  designated  by  Cornbury  as  Mr.  Eunter — is  mentioned 
as  the  immediate  successor  of  that  disgraced  and  incarcerated  peer. 
Evidently  the  short  incumbency  of  the  unfortunate  Lord  Lovelace 
had  escaped  the  novelist  altogether.  But  Cornbury's  execrably  bad 
conduct  had  had  one  good  effect.  It  had  unified  parties  in  a  common 
opposition  to  a  government  which  disgusted  and  threatened  all  alike. 
Parties  indeed  divided  again  upon  other  lines,  but  not  wit  h  memories 
so  bitter  and  with  hatred  so  deadly  as  had  been  the  case  when  Leisler- 
ians  and  anti-Leislerians  stood  opposed  to  each  other.  A  definite  line 
of  battle  gradually  marked  itself  out  upon  the  question  of  granting 
supplies  or  salaries  by  the  Assembly.  The  popular  party  insisted 
upon  granting  supplies  of  money  only  from  year  to  year  and  with  ap- 
plications specified,  thus  fixing  the  salaries  for  Governor  and  other 
officials  only  per  annum  and  by  name,  so  that  obnoxious  persons  were 
in  danger  of  being  left  unpaid.  The  Governor's  or  Court  Party 
wanted  supplies  granted  in  bulk  and  for  a  number  of  years  at  once. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  t  he  struggle  which  culminated  in  the  resist- 
ance to  the  Stamp  Act;  it  was  the  rooting  in  the  thoughts  and  habits 
of  the  people  of  the  principle,  "  No  Taxation  Without  Representa- 
tion," which  had  its  issue  in  the  Revolution  and  Independence.  The 
refusal  to  grant  supplies  for  government  expenses  or  for  defenses,  was 
often  particularly  annoying  to  the  Royal  Governors,  because  during 
several  terms  expeditions  were  regularly  fitted  out  to  attempt  the  con- 
quest of  Canada.  Leisler's  plan  of  campaign,  which  embraced  the 
assembling  of  the  colonial  forces  on  the  upper  Hudson,  and  penetrat- 
ing to  the  Canadian  frontier  along  Lakes  George  and  Champlain,  was 
usually  the  one  adopted  in  subsequent  efforts.  But  these  were  uni- 
formly unsuccessful,  even  when  the  plan  was  made  to  include  a  naval 
expedition  up  the  St.  Lawrence.  Such  a  campaign  was  organized 
with  much  <<-htt  under  Lord  Lovelace,  and  undertaken  immediately 
after  his  death.  Again  under  Governor  Hunter  another  one  was 
entered  upon.  And  then  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713  put  a  stop  to 
hostilities  for  a  time.  In  all  these  military  enterprises  New  York  City 
bore  her  part  well,  sending  men  to  the  front  and  contributing  moneys 
as  required.  In  connection  with  these  events  occurred  the  first  intro- 
duction of  paper  money  into  the  city.  Sums  of  ten  or  twelve  thousand 
pounds  were  occasionally  voted  by  the  Assembly,  and  bills  of  credit 
issued  for  future  redemption. 

Like  every  other  governor,  General  Hunter  found  that  his  posi- 
tion was  not  a  bed  of  roses;  at  least  the  thorns  were  quite  enough  in 
evidence  to  suit  him.  But  he  possessed  a  pleasant  wit,  and  was  never 
more  happy  in  his  sallies,  as  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Dean  Swift 
or  others,  than  Avhen  he  was  most  annoyed.  At  one  time  he  and  <  5hief- 
Justice  Lewis  Morris,  a  congenial  spirit,  composed  a  farce  together 
entitled  "  Androborus,"  which  hit  off  the  peculiarities  of  some  of  their 


116 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


opponents  in  a  Lively  fashion,  Hunter  was  a  self-made  man  in  many 
ways,  typical  of  American  public  men  in  later  times.  He  was  an 
apothecary's  apprentice  when  the  notion  took  him  to  enter  the  army. 
He  did  so  with  no  money  or  influence,  as  a  private,  but  rose  by  merit 
and  conduct  and  the  charm  of  his  mental  and  social  qualities  from 
the  ranks,  attaining  the  grade  of  Brigadier-General.  He  had  no  mean 
literary  aptitudes,  and  corresponded  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  some 
of  the  foremost  wits  of  the  day.  He  was  a  decided  accession  to  the 
social  life  of  the  city,  and  added  much  to  its  intellectual  tone.  But  in 
this  he  was  exceeded  by  his  successor,  Governor  William  Burnet.  He 
was  the  son  of  the  famous  Bishop  Burnet,  favorite  of  W  illiam  III. 
While  not  educated  for  the  church,  Governor  Burnet  was  very  fond 
of  theological  studies.  He  ventured  upon  disputes  with  theologians 
Avith  great  temerity,  promulgated  in  book  form  some  theories  as  to 
the  interpretation  of  Daniel's  prophecies,  and  took  it  upon  himself  to 
judge  of  the  fitness  of  young  men  desiring  a  license  to  preach.  He 
would  give  I  hem  a  text  and  shut  them  up  in  a  room  to  evolve  a  ser- 
mon out  of  it  in  a  given  time,  and  if  they  did  not  come  up  to  the  mark. 


Dutch  merchants.  .Miss  Anne  Marie  Van  Home.  Her  father  was 
Abraham  Van  Home,  whose  residence  and  store  were  located  in  \Y;iH 
Street,  and  her  mother  was  a  daughter  of  David  Provoost,  who  was 
Mayor  of  the  city  in  L699,  and  whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Johannes 
De  Peyster.  Thus  the  Governor  allied  himself  to  the  very  cream  of 
the  Dutch  and  Huguenot  element,  and  no  doubt  there  was  much  re- 
joicing among  them  when  in  the  early  summer  of  1721  the  marriage 


.MRS.  WI I.I.I  AM  HI" UN  KT. 


he  would  refuse  to  pass  them. 
But  his  tastes  were  also  scien- 
tific; he  possessed  a  telescope 
and  prepared  papers  on  astro- 
nomical subjects,  and  by  care- 
ful observations  fixed  the  exact 
latitude  and  longitude  of  Fort 
George.  While  thus  mentally 
equipped,  he  was  none  the  less 
fond  of  society,  and  the  Gover- 
nor's mansion  became  the  cen- 
ter of  much  social  activity.  This 
was  the  more  naturally  the  case, 
in  that  the  Governor  had  placed 
himself  in  very  intimate  rela- 
tions with  the  families  of  his 
capital.  He  came  to  New  York 
a  young,  unmarried  man.  Soon 
after  his  arrival  he  met  and  fell 
in  love  with  the  daughter  of  one 
of  the  prominent  and  wealthy 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


117 


was  consummated.  Unfortunately  the  happy  union  was  not  of  long 
duration.  At  the  birth  of  the  second  child,  in  1727,  Mrs.  Burnet  died. 

In  spite  of  some  difficulties  with  prominent  individuals  and  annoy- 
ing contests  with  the  Assembly,  which  was  a  thorn  in  the  side  to  so 
many  Governors,  Burnet  liked  his  position  and  was  desirous  of  re- 
taining it.  But  on  the  death  of  King  George  I  and  the  accession  of 
George  II,  he  was  removed  to  Massachusetts,  and  a  favorite  of  the 
new  King,  who  had  been  his  groom  of  the  bed  chamber  while  Prince 
of  Wales,  was  given  the  governorship  of  New  York. 

The  new  Governor  was  Colonel  John  Montgomerie,  a  Scotchman  of 
good  character  but  somewhat  dull  parts.  He  was  modestly  conscious 
of  his  deficiencies,  and  ingratiated  himself  with  the  refractory  Assem- 
bly by  making  no  claims  for  unspecified  supplies,  and  by  avoiding  the 
exercise  of  the  functions  of  a  Chancellor,  which  Burnet  was  fond  of 
doing,  but  which  the  popular  party  regarded  as  an  infringement  upon 
their  privileges  and  liberties.  As  a  result  Montgomerie  had  no  con- 
troversies with  the  legislature,  and  they  granted  him  supplies  for  a 
number  of  years  at  once,  a  thing  they  had  persistently  refused  to  do 
for  Lovelace,  Hunter,  and  Burnet.  But  this  reign  of  peace  was  unfor- 
tunately of  short  duration,  for  Montgomerie  died  suddenly  on  the 
morning  of  July  1,  1731.  It  is  not  definitely  stated  what  was  the  cause 
of  this  sudden  demise.  But  during  that  summer  the  smallpox  was 
raging  in  the  city,  carrying  away  five  hundred  victims  out  of  its  pop- 
ulation of  not  more  than  nine  thousand.  It  is  more  than  likely  that 
in  those  days  of  primitive  sanitary  arrangement,  the  disease  could  not 
be  kept  from  attacking  even  the  inmates  of  the  Governor's  mansion. 

Brief  as  was  his  occupancy  of  the  Governor's  chair,  Montgomerie's 
name  has  become  identified  with  one  of  the  now  numerous  charters  of 
New  York  City.  In  1708,  or  twenty-two  years  after  the  charter  grant*  1 
by  Dongan  in  16SG,  one  was  granted  under  Cornbury,  referring,  how- 
ever, exclusively  to  the  matter  of  ferry  privileges.  Twenty-two  years 
after  that,  or  in  1730,  a  third  charter  of  considerable  importance,  and 
covering  every  point  of  municipal  government  or  interest,  was  sub- 
mitted for  approval  to  the  Provincial  Council.  It  was  referred  to  a 
committee  of  which  the  chairman  was  the  lawyer  James  Alexander, 
the  father  of  General  Lord  Stirling,  of  Revolutionary  fame,  the  hero 
of  the  battle  of  Long  Island.  The  Council  on  August  13,  1730,  unani- 
mously voted  to  grant  the  charter,  and  the  Governor  signed  it.  It 
needed  now  only  what  the  Dongan  charter  never  obtained,  the  sign 
and  seal  of  the  Royal  hand.  But  there  seems  to  be  some  question  as  to 
whether  the  present  charter  was  more  fortunate  in  this  respect  than 
the  earlier  one.  Diligent  search  has  failed  to  find  a  record  of  any  ac- 
tion in  regard  to  the  charter  by  the  King  or  his  Council  or  his  Minis- 
ters in  England.  As  late  as  1732  Governor  Cosby  is  found  writing  to 
England,  advising  against  the  approval  of  the  charter,  and  in  the 
collection  of  colonial  documents  published  by  the  State,  there  is  a 


US 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


letter  from  the  Lords  of  Trade  still  Later  asking  for  a  copy  of  it. 
Nevertheless,  after  an  interval  of  about  six  months,  giving  time 
enough  for  a  transmission  of  the  charter  back  and  forth  to  England, 
there  took  place  a  public  ceremony  and  formal  presentation  of  the 
charter  by  the  Provincial  Council  to  the  city  authorities.  This  oc- 
curred on  February  11,  1731,  or  exactly  a  year  before  the  birth  of 
\\  ashington,  by  the  Old  Style. 

On  that  day  Robert  Lurting,  Mayor,  Frederick  Harrison,  Recorder, 
the  Aldermen  and  Assistant  Aldermen,  proceeded  in  a  body  from 
their  room  in  the  City  Hall  to  that  occupied  by  the  Governor  and 
Council.  The  Mayor  stepped  forward,  received  the  instrument  from 
the  hands  of  Governor  Montgomerie,  and  took  the  oaths  of  office  anew. 
He  thereupon  naming  Alderman  John  Cruger  for  the  new  office  of 
Deputy-Mayor,  the  Governor  was  graciously  pleased  to  appoint  him, 
and  administered  the  oat  h  of  office  at  once.  This  done,  the  Recorder 
came  forward  and  read  an  address  of  thanks  signed  bv  all  the  mem- 
bers  of  the  corporation,  the  main  purport  of  which  was  that  the  good- 
ness of  the  Governor  had  induced  the  corporation  to  select  this  time 
for  petitioning  for  a  charter.  lie  replied  in  the  following  brief  and 
well-chosen  words:  "  1  am  very  glad  that  it  has  been  in  my  power  to 
promote  the  prosperity  and  interest  of  the  City  of  New  York,  which  I 
believe  1  have  effectually  done  by  now  delivering  to  yonr  Mayor  the 
King's  royal  and  most  gracious  charter.  It  gives  me  great  satisfac- 
tion my  being  fully  assured  that  the  officers  mimed  in  the  charier  are 
tit  for  their  respective  trusts  and  will  do  their  duty  with  a  strict  re- 
gard for  his  Majesty's  service  and  the  good  of  the  city."  It  would 
seem  from  this  speech,  if  the  Council  minutes  are  to  be  depended  upon 
for  its  exact  verbal  reproduction,  as  if  the  document  had  actually 
been  signed  by  the  King,  thus  making  it  his  "  royal  and  most  gracious 
charter." 

An  attempt  was  made  to  secure  the  privilege  of  electing  the  ap- 
pointive officers,  Mayor,  Recorder,  Sheriff,  Coroner,  Tow  n  Clerk;  but 
this  provision  was  st  ruck  out,  and  1  hey  remained  appointive  as  before. 
There  was  an  addition  of  one  ward  to  the  six  defined  by  the  Dongan 
charter.  Naturally  it  was  parceled  out  of  the  immense  Out  Ward, 
running  along  the  East  River,  and  bounded  on  the  West  by  the  old 
North  Ward,  now  also  extended  beyond  Wall  Street,  The  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  city  was  extended  not  only  over  all  of  Manhattan  Island, 
but  was  made  to  cover  also  all  the  opposite  surrounding  shores  of 
Westchester  and  Long  Island  as  far  as  Low-water  mark.  The  officials 
of  the  corporation,  besides  the  Mayor  and  his  deputy,  were  enumer- 
ated as  one  Recorder,  seven  Aldermen,  seven  Assistants,  one  Sheriff, 
one  Coroner,  one  Common  Clerk,  one  Chamberlain,  one  High  Consta- 
ble, sixteen  Assessors,  seven  Collectors,  sixteen  Constables,  and  one 
Marshal.  Wharves  or  docks  were  to  be  forty  feet  wide,  both  for  the 
convenience  of  trade  and  for  the  planting  of  cannon  in  case  of  war. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


119 


The  quit-rent  was  made  ten  shillings  higher  than  formerly.  The 
Mayor,  Recorder,  and  Aldermen  were  regarded  as  equivalent  to  Jus- 
tices of  the  Peace  for  city  and  county.  The  Mayor,  Recorder,  and  three 
of  the  Aldermen  were  to  be  a  committee  with  power  to  administer 
oaths  to  citizens,  and  to  grant  the  freedom  of  the  city,  either  as  a  com- 
pliment or  for  a  regulated  price.  A  few  years  before  this  the  price  was 
placed  at  twenty  shillings  for  a  merchant  or  trader,  and  six  shillings 
for  a  mechanic.  A  Court  of  Common  Pleas  was  constituted  by  the 
Mayor,  or  Deputy,  with  two  or  more  Aldermen.  Without  going  into 
any  further  details,  it  need  only  be  said  that  this  charter  continued  to 
be  the  basis  of  the  city  government  and  municipal  privileges  for  many 
years  and  through  many  political  changes,  with  but  few  modifica- 
tions. Chancellor  Kent,  in  1836,  said  of  it:  "  It  remains  to  this  day 
with  much  of  its  original  form  and  spirit,  after  having  received  by 
statute  such  modifications  and  such  a  thorough  enlargement  in  its 
legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  branches,  as  were  best  adapted  to 
the  genius  and  wants  of  the  people,  and  to  the  astonishing  growth 
and  still  rapidly  increasing  wealth  and  magnitude  of  the  city." 

Prom  a  map  published  in  1728  we  can  obtain  a  pretty  accurate  idea 
of  what  the  city  was  like  at  the  time  of  the  grant  ing  of  the  Montgom- 
erie  charter.  The  west  side  of  the  city  is  still  for  the  most  part  an 
unoccupied  and  barren  shore.  It  was  only  just  five  years  before  that 
steps  were  taken  looking  toward  the  laying  out  of  Greenwich  Street 
and  Washington  Street,  and  the  tide  waters  at  high-water  and  low- 
water  marks  were  boldly  invaded,  on  paper.  But  not  till  several  years 
after  this  period  was  the  scheme  carried  out.  On  the  East  River  side 
there  was  the  great  circular  basin,  out  into  which  jutted  a  pier  from 
the  foot  of  Broad  Street.  From  Old  Slip  to  the  foot  of  Wall  Street  ran 
Hunter's  Key  (i.e.,  Quay),  and  from  Wall  Street  to  the  foot  of  Crown 
(Liberty)  Street,  extended  Burnet's  Key;  both  of  them  wharves  for  the 
reception  of  merchandise,  but  parallel,  not  at  right  angles,  to  the  shore 
line.  Pearl  Street  began  where  it  does  now,  but  it  was  called  Dock 
Street  from  Whitehall  to  Hanover  Square,  and  beyond  Wall  till  it  was 
lost  in  the  country  at  Franklin  Square,  it  went  by  the  name  of  Queen 
Street.  William  Street  was  Smith  Street  as  far  as  Maiden  Lane,  be- 
yond which  it  bore  its  present  name.  Beyond  Wall  Street  there  wore 
now  several  streets  crossing  Nassau,  then  called  Kip  Street  north  of 
Fulton.  First  came  King,  now  Pine;  then  Little  Queen,  now  Cedar; 
then  Crown,  now  Liberty.  Maiden  Lane  and  John  Street  were  then  as 
now,  but  John  east  of  William  was  called  Golden  Hill,  a  name  destined 
to  become  historic  in  the  ante-Revolutionary  agitations.  Fulton  Street 
was  Fair  Street  then;  Beekman  and  Frankfort  Streets  were  in  their 
places;  but.  beyond  these  all  was  country,  the  road  to  Boston  running 
along  the  line  of  Park  Row.  On  the  other  side  of  Broadway  the  outer- 
most thoroughfare  was  Old  Windmill  Lane,  and  seems  to  have  occu- 
pied the  place  of  Cortlandt  and  Dey  Streets  in  its  crooked  progress 


120 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


to  the  River;  and  where  Crown  and  Little  Queen  (Liberty  and  Cedar) 
streets  opened  on  the  River,  there  were  a  couple  of  docks  running 
out  into  the  water.  The  fort  and  vicinity  were  in  much  the  same  con- 
dition as  formerly,  only  from  the  plan  we  notice  that  the  blocks  along 
the  old  streets  were  pretty  solidly  built  up.  The  price  of  lots  in  the 
heart  of  the  city  reached  about  an  average  of  £lMi(l  ouch.  The  houses 
were  now  nearly  all  of  brick,  but  still  with  their  pointed  gables,  crow- 
stepped  or  straight  sides,  facing  the  street. 

The  city  in  appearance  and  population  was  still  decidedly  and  prev- 
alently Dutch.  And  upon  the  death  of  Governor  Montgomerie  the 
hearts  of  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  were  gratified  by  the  fact 
that  the  Government  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  oldest  member  of  the 
Council,  who  happened  to  be  an  out-and-out  Dutchman,  Rip  Van 
Dam.  He  and  his  wife  were  duly  inscribed  upon  the  membership  roll 
of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  and  their  fifteen  children  helped  to 
fill  up  the  pages  of  the  Baptismal  Register  of  the  same  body.   He  was 

not  even  over-familiar  with  the  official 
language.  Of  him  and  a  fellow  Dutch- 
man in  the  Council  it  was  said  regarding 
their  knowledge  of  English:  "If  they 
understand  the  common  discourse,  'tis 
as  much  as  they  do."  He  was  born  at 
Albany  some  sixty  years  before  this,  but 
came  to  New  York  at  the  age  of  twenty, 
where,  after  some  experience  as  a  sea- 
faring man.  a  captain  of  trading  vessels, 
some  of  whifch  he  came  to  own.  he  settled 
down  to  mercantile  business  on  land, 
and  became  very  prosperous.  He  ap- 
pears to  have  been  opposed  to  Leisler, 
Ion  took  no  prominent  part  in  affairs 
until  he  was  appointed  to  Cornbury's 
Council  in  1702.  twenty-nine  years  be- 
Rir  van  dam.  fore.    By  virtue  of  this  long  service  he 

was  President  of  the  Council,  and  at  the 
death  of  the  Governor  it  devolved  upon  him  as  such  to  act  as  Chief 
Magistrate  until  the  arrival  of  the  new  appointee.  As  this  did  not 
occur  till  August.  1 7.'52.  the  Dutch  people  particularly,  and  the  colony 
in  general,  were1  gratified  at  the  spectacle  of  seeing  one  of  their  own 
number  exercising  virtually  the  functions  of  (iovernor  for  more  than 
a  year.  It  would  have  been  better  if  the  English  Government  had 
left  things  as  they  were;  but  it  was  t heir  policy  to  rather  int rust  with 
power  t  Ik1  unworthiest  and  most  incapable  Englishman  than  t  he  most 
efficient  and  uprighl  colonist. 

William  Cosby  was  one  of  the  poor  specimens  of  Governors  sent 
over  with  such  exasperating  frequency,    lie  had  a  clouded  reputation 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


121 


as  a  result  of  some  financial  transactions  while  he  w  as  Governor  of 
the  Island  of  Minorca.  He  was  unscrupulous  in  his  greed  for  money, 
and  recklessly  tyrannical  in  setting  aside  colonial  privileges,  outrag- 
ing the  sense  of  justice  and  fairness  in  court  functions.  He  had  no 
sooner  arrived  than  he  demanded  of  Van  Dam  one-half  of  his  salary 
as  Acting  Governor.  While  in  England  Cosby  had  already  received 
fees  and  perquisities  to  the  amount  of  several  thousand  pounds  as 
Governor  of  New  York  before  ever  exercising  its  duties,  and  Yan 
Dam  agreed  to  divide  the  salary  if  Cosby  would  also  divide  these  fees. 
He  would  not  listen  to  such  a  proposal,  and  when  Yan  Dam  declined 
to  share  his  well-earned  salary  the  Governor  instituted  a  suit  against 
him. 

It  has  already  been  observed  that  a  Court  of  Chancery  (with  the 
Governor  as  presiding 
Judge,  and  two  Coun- 
cilors as  assistant 
Judges)  had  been  vig- 
orously resented  by  the 
popular  party  of  the 
Assembly  as  a  serious 
threat  to  their  liberties. 
Burnet,  otherwise  ami- 
able and  worthy,  was 
very  fond  of  exercising 
the  functions  of  Chan- 
cellor, and  his  persist- 
ence in  doing  so  had 
made  him  very  unpop- 
ular, and  had  contrib- 
uted to  his  removal. 
Cosby  defied  the  senti- 
ment of  the  people  and 
instituted  the  Court 
anew,    himself    presid-  william  smith. 

ing.    with  Councilors 

James  De  Lancey  and  Adolph  Philipse,  his  close  adherents,  as 
assistants.  Mr.  A'an  Dam  objected  to  the  case  against  him  being 
tried  by  a  Court  so  constituted,  of  which  the  presiding  Judge 
himself  was  the  party  chiefly  interested  and  the  very  one  bringing  the 
suit.  His  counsel  were  William  Smith,  the  father  of  the  earliest  his- 
torian of  New  York,  and  James  Alexander,  mentioned  a  few  pages  be- 
fore, both  eminent  lawyers,  who  had  settled  in  New  York  some  four- 
teen or  fifteen  years  before  and  had  won  for  themselves  reputation 
and  wealth.  These  men  pressed  Yan  Dam's  plea  that  the  Court  had 
no  right  to  try  him.  The  Chief-Justice  of  the  Province  was  Lewis 
Morris,  another  name  destined  to  prominence  in  American  history. 


122 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


He  bad  been  brought  up  by  an  uncle  on  bis  estate  across  the  Harlem, 
known  by  the  name  of  Morrisania,  Tired  of  a  humdrum  life,  he  ran 
away  from  home  when  still  a  boy,got  stranded  at  .Jamaica. bad  but  in- 
different success  at  making  a  living  there  and  finally  returned  home, 
where  be  was  pardoned  by  bis  uncle,  who  induced  him  to  marry,  and 
settled  him  on  an  estate.  He  bad  picked  up  considerable  knowledge 
of  books  and  men,  was  found  to  be  a  congenial  companion  by  Gover- 
nor Hunter,  by  whom  be  was  made  Chief  Justice  of  the  Province  of 
New  York.  His  friendship  with  Burnet,  had  been  equally  warm. 
Cosby  was  not  quite  sure  bow  he  stood  with  regard  to  himself;  but 
when  .Morris  felt  compelled  to  favor  Van  Dam's  plea,  and  to  deny  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Governor  as  judge  in  a  suit  instituted  by  himself 
for  the  recovery  of  funds,  Cosby  marked  him  for  vengeance.  He 
removed  him  from  bis  office  without  notice  to  himself,  or  without  con- 
sent or  even  the  notification  of  the  Council,  by  whose  joint  action 
with  the  Governor  the  removal  could  alone  have  been  legitimately 
effected.  To  the  office  thus  summarily  made  vacant  be  appointed 
James  He  Lancey,  another  name  of  weight  in  colonial  history.  He 
was  a  young  man  as  yet,  the  son  of  Stephen  De  Lancey,  a  member  of 
the  Huguenot  Church,  who  had  attained  wealth  as  a  merchant,  and 
bad  served  in  the  Council.  James  was  educated  at  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  came  back  to  New  York  in  1723,  began  the  practice  of 
law,  and  in  Montgomerie's  time  succeeded  John  Barbaric  (whence 
Cooper  doubtless  gets  his  "  la  Belle  Barberie  ")  as  member  of  Council 
on  the  hitter's  death.  Espousing  the  cause  of  Cosby  for  reasons  best 
known  to  himself,  he  bad  now  received  his  reward  in  being  elevated  to 
the  Chief  Justiceship.  It.  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  people  of 
New  York  would  tamely  bear  these  arbitrary  proceedings  on  the  part 
of  their  Governor.  Their  Assembly  had  humbled  stronger  and  better 
men  than  he.  His  utter  unscrupulousness  and  recklessness  as  to 
measures  were  in  bis  favor  for  a  while,  but  the  indignation  of  a  whole 
population  could  not  be  long  defied  with  impunity.  Public  opinion 
fonnd  expression  even  thus  early  by  means  of  the  press.  The  aid  of 
the  incipient  but  courageous  journalism  of  the  day  was  summoned  in 
support  of  the  popular  cause,  and  its  bold  stand  on  the  side  of  civil 
liberty  led  to  a  glorious  triumph  for  the  cause  of  the  freedom  of  the 
press. 

On  October  IT.,  1725,  William  Bradford,  w  hom  we  saw  appointed 
Governmenl  Printer  at  New  York  in  1693,  issued  the  first  number  of 
a  weekly  newspaper  w  hich  he  called  the  New  York  Gazette.  The 
news  from  abroad,  the  home  news,  and  the  advertisements,  covered 
just  two  pages,  or  one-half  a  sheet,  of  foolscap  size.  It  was  a 
memorable  undertaking,  although  the  example  bad  been  already  set 
by  other  cities. and  speaks  well  for  i  he  enterprising  spirit  of  Bradford, 
who  was  now  sixty-two  years  old.    Success  at  fending  bis  modest  von- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


123 


ture,  in  1720  the  paper  was  enlarged  to  lour  pages,  or  a  full  sheet  of 
foolscap.    But  naturally,  being  in  government  employ,  Bradford 
could  not  allow  anything  to  be  printed  in  this  sheet  reflecting  on  His 
Majesty's  representative.    So  the  paper  afforded  no  vehicle  for  the 
expression  of  popular  indignation  that  was  rising  to  a  fever  heat 
against  Cosby.    As  already  seen,  some  men  of  the  keenest  wit  and 
brightest  intellect,  as  well  as  legal  learning  and  political  experience, 
had  been  placed  in  a  position  of  antagonism  to  the  Governor.  Morris, 
Smith,  Alexander,  were  men  who  could  wield  a  trenchant  pen,  and 
whose  information  on  the  lines  of  attack  that  suggested  themselves 
was  full  and  varied.   President  Van  Dam,  and  a  host  of  his  admirers, 
possessed  ample  means,  as  well  as  a  willingness  to  join  in  an  attack 
on  the  government;  and  the  combination  of  brains  and  capital  soon 
resulted  in  the  starting  of  a  second  weekly  newspaper.    There  was 
another  printer  in  town.   John  Peter  Zenger  had  come  over  as  a  lad 
in  1710  with  the  Palatines.    He  had  been  apprenticed  to  Bradford, 
served  out  a  period  of  eight  years,  and  had  later  set  up  in  business 
for  himself.    His  printing  office  was  located  in  "  Stone  Street,  near 
the  fort,"  that  is,  not  far  from  the  corner  of  Whitehall.    He  was 
heartily  in  sympathy  with  the  popular  cause  against  the  Governor's 
party,  and  backed  by  money  and  the  ready  supply  of  "  copy  "  by  men 
of  ability  and  influence,  he  wras  easily  induced  to  fall  in  with  the  de- 
sign of  publishing  a  paper  in  opposition  to  that  of  his  former  master. 
So  on  November  5,  1733,  appeared  the  first  number  of  the  New  York 
Journal.    Morris,  Alexander,  and  Smith,  gathered  a  few  kindred 
spirits  about  them  into  a  sort  of  club,  which  met  weekly,  and  at  this 
meeting  the  articles  were  discussed  and  decided  on.   As  was  the  cus- 
tom then  and  long  afterward  writers  wrote  over  nommes-de-plume, 
selecting  for  these  the  names  of  classic  personages,  or  Latin  terms 
expressive  of  their  feelings.    On  November  12,  1733,  in  the  second 
number,  we  find  a  certain  "  Cato  "  asking  "  Mr.  Zenger  "  to  "  incert 
the  following  in  your  next,"  which  was  this  of  November  12,  "  Mun- 
day."   It  was  an  essay  setting  forth  the  importance  of  the  "  Liberty 
of  the  Press."   A  lively  war  of  wit  was  waged  with  pen  and  printer's 
ink  for  about  a  year.   Personalities  occur,  for  wit  was  not  delicate  in 
those  days.   Harrison,  the  City  Recorder,  strongly  sided  with  Gover- 
nor Cosby.   He  was  called  a  monkey.   The  Governor  himself  was  not 
handled  with  care.   It  having  been  contended  that  rulers  deserve  re- 
spect, the  retort  was:  "  If  all  governors  are  to  be  reverenced  why  not 
the  Turk,  and  old  Muley,  or  Nero?"    The  town  was  thrown  into  a 
tumult  because  of  a  letter  found  on  James  Alexander's  doorstep 
threatening  destruction  to  him  and  his  household.    The  Journal 
printed  the  letter  and  bluntly  declared  that  Harrison  wrote  it.  Har- 
rison declared  that  Alexander  wrote  it  himself  to  discredit  his  op- 
ponents. Cosby  offered  a  reward  of  fifty  pounds  for  information  as  to 
the  author,  while  Zenger  was  threatened  wdth  a  beating  for  printing 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


THE 

New -York  Weekly  JOURNAL 


Containing   the   frejhejl  Advice  j,   Foreign,  and  DoTntJtick. 


MUtfDAT  November  12,  1733. 


I 


Mr.  Zenger. 

Ncert  the  following  in  your  next, 
and  you'll  oblige  your  Friend, 

CJTO. 


M'ira  temporum  felichas  ubi-pntiri  qua 
vein,  &  qtue  feut'ras  dicere  licit. 

Tacit. 

THE  Liberty  of  thePrefs 
is  a  Subject  of  the  great- 
eft  Importance.,  and  in 
■which  every  Individual 
is  as  much  concern'd  as 
lie  is  in  any  other  Part  of  Liberty 


ttavr  Sovereign,  the  fole  fupream  Ma- 
j  iftrate  •,  for  there  being  no  Law  in 
thofc  Monarchies,  but  the  Will  of  the 
Prince,  it  makes  it  nrcetfary  for  his 
Miniftcrs  to  confult  his  Pleafure,  be- 
fore any  Thing  can  be  undcirWcrt : 
He  is  therefore  properly  cbntgeabls 
with  the  Grievances  of  his  Sibjefls, 
and  what  the  Minifter  there  ads  bV:t;g 
in  Obedience  to  the  Prince,  he  ought 
not  to  incur  the  Hatred  of  the  People  •, 
for  it  would  be  hard  to  impute  that  \q 
him  foT  a  Crime,  ^hich  is  iheFruirof 
his  Allegiance,  and  for  refufing  which 
he  night  incur  the  Penalties  of  Trea- 
fon.  ;  Befides,  in  an  abfolute  Monar- 


Tr.erefjre  it  will  not  be  i  mproper  to  chy,  the  Will  of  the  Prince  being  the 

communicate  to  the  Publick  theSenti-  Law,a  Liberty  of  thePrefs  to  complain 

ments  of  a  late  excellent  Writer  upon  of  Grievances  would  be  complaining 

this  Poin%    fuch  is  the  Elegance  and  againft  the  Law,  and  the  Conmtution, 

Pcrfpicuity  of  his  Writings,  fuch  the  to  which  they  have  fubmitted,  or  have 

inimitable  Forcc  of  his  Reafjning,  that  been  obliged  to  fubmir,  and  therefore 


it  will  be  difficult  to  fay  any  Thinj 
new  that  he  has  not  faid,  or  not  to 
fey  that  much  wovfe  which  he  has 

faid- 

There  are  wo  Sorts  of  Monarchies, 
an  abfolute  and  a  limited  one.  In  the 
firft,  the  Liberty  of  thePrefs  can  never 
be  maintained,  it  is  inconfiflent  with 
it  •  for  what  abfolute  Monarch  would 
fuffeT  any  Subjcft  to  animadvert 
on  his  Anions,  when  it  is  in  his  Pow- 
er to  declare  the  Crime,  and  to  nomi- 
nate the  Punifhment?    This  would 


in  one  Senfe,  may  be  faid  to  delcrve 
Punifhment,    So  that  under  an  abfo 
lute  Monarchy,  I  fay,  fuch  a  Liberty 
is  inconfiflent  with  the  Confthution, 
having  no  proper  Subject  id  Politics, 
on  which  it  might  beexercis'd,  ?nd  if 
excrcis'd  would  incur  a  certainPenalty 
But  in  a  limited  Monarchy,  as  Fng 
land  is,  our  Laws  are  known,  fixed 
and  cftablifhed.  They  are  the  ftreigli 
Rule  and  fure  Guide  to  direft  the  King, 
the  Minifters,  and  other  his  Subjects  : 
And  therefore  an  Offence  againft  the 


make  it  very  dangerous  to  exercife  fuch  Laws  is  fuch  an  Offence  againft  the 
a  I  iberty    Befides  the  Objeft  againft  Conftitution  as  ought  to  receive  a  pto 
hieh  thole  Pens  muft  be  directed,  is  per  adequate  Punifhment  •,  the^v^ 


PAGE  FROM  ZENGER'S  JOURNAL. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


125 


it.  And  thus  the  heat  of  party  strife  grew  ever  more  intense:  there 
must  be  an  explosion  soon. 

Late  in  September,  1734,  occurred  the  elections  for  Aldermen  and 
Assistants.  Now  the  hatred  of  faction  had  a  chance  of  exhibiting 
itself  at  the  polls,  and  at  the  same  to  show  on  whose  side  was  the 
greater  number.  The  contest  was  decided  in  favor  of  the  popular 
party.  All  but  one  Alderman  or  Assistant  of  that  side  were  elected, 
so  that  Cosby  had  but  one  man  left  in  the  Common  Council  who  was 
on  his  side.  As  might  be  expected,  the  victory  w  as  celebrated  with- 
out moderation  in  the  columns  of  the  New  York  -Journal.  There- 
upon Cosby  and  his  party  threw  aside  all  cautjon.  By  a  series  of 
high-handed  proceedings  they  undertook  to  punish  Zenger  and  to 
silence  his  paper,  hoping  thus  to  quench  forever  the  freedom  of  the 
press.  First  James  De  Lancey,  the  Chief  Justice,  demanded  an  in- 
dictment of  Zenger  from  the  Grand  Jury.  The  Grand  Jury  paid  no 
attention  to  the  demand.  Next  Cosby  called  upon  the  Council  to 
move  in  the  matter.  He  could  not  depend  on  the  Provincial  Assem- 
bly. Cosby  refused  to  dissolve  it  for  fear  of  getting  one  with  a  ma- 
jority against  him;  but  yet  he  called  it  together  very  rarely,  prefer- 
ring to  do  his  own  legislating  without  let  or  hindrance.  The  Council 
was  more  subservient,  obeying  his  behest  and  sending  a  message  to 
the  "  lower  house  "  anent  Zenger's  "  scurrilous  "  effusions.  But 
Morris  was  in  the  Assembly,  and  the  complaint  of  the  Council  was 
"  laid  on  the  table."  Emboldened  by  these  impotent  efforts  to  harm 
them,  the  contributors  to  the  Journal  tried  their  hands  at  poetry. 
Two  ballads  appeared,  having  for  their  subject  the  recent  election. 
They  must  have  been  of  a  very  pointed  character.  It  threw  De  Lan- 
cey once  more  into  a  rage,  and  he  now  procured  a  presentment 
against  them  from  the  Grand  Jury.  The  numbers  containing  them 
were  ordered  to  be  burned  by  the  hangman  at  the  place  of  execution; 
and  it  was  done.  Encouraged  by  this  slight  advantage,  the  Gover- 
nor's Council  next  ordered  Nos.  7.  47,  48,  49,  of  the  Journal  to  be 
similarly  burned,  in  the  presence  of  the  Common  Council  of  the  city. 
The  Aldermen  refused  to  obey  the  mandate,  and  even  forbade  the 
hangman  to  burn  the  papers,  so  the  act  was  performed  on  November 
2,  1734,  by  the  Sheriff's  negro  servant,  in  the  presence  of  no  one  but 
Recorder  Harrison  and  a  couple  of  his  friends  and  a  few  soldiers. 

And  now  came  the  supreme  move  on  the  part  of  the  Governor, 
which  was  only  to  prepare  for  him  a  supreme  discomfiture.  Zenger 
was  arrested  on  November  17,  1734.  The  Grand  Jury  would  find  no 
indictment  against  him,  so  Attorney-General  Bradley,  like  De  Lancey 
a  creature  of  Cosby's,  filed  an  information  for  libel,  and  on  the  strength 
of  this  the  Governor's  Council  ordered  Zenger's  arrest.  He  was  im- 
prisoned in  the  common  jail,  in  the  basement  or  ground  floor  of  the 
City  Hall.  A  habeas  corpus  was  procured,  and  his  deliverance  on  bail 
demanded,  but  the  prosecutors  put  the  bail  at  an  exorbitant  figure; 


126 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


four  hundred  pounds  down,  and  two  sureties  besides  at  two  hundred 
pounds  each.  Thus  Zenger  languished  in  prison  until  the  Grand  Jury 
could  be  induced  to  bring  an  indictment.  This  it  finally  and  formally 
refused  to  do  on  January  28,  1735.  Zenger  should  then  have  been  set 
free.  But  his  enemies  were  not  yet  through  with  him.  The  Attorney- 
General  was  at  once  ready  with  a  new  charge  based  upon  Nos.  13  and 
23  of  the  Journal,  in  which  was  alleged  to  have  been  printed  by  him 
matter  that  was  "false,  scandalous,  and  seditions."  So  there  was 
to  be  a  trial  after  all  before  the  Court  over  which  dames  De  Lancey 
presided.  On  April  1<»,  173."),  the  case  came  up.  Zenger's  counsel, 
none  other,  of  course,  than  Smith  and  Alexander,  began  by  calling  in 
question  the  legitimacy  of  the  Judge,  .Morris  having  been  removed, 
and  De  Lancey  appointed  by  the  mere  willful  act  of  the  Governor, 
without  consent  of  Council.  They  were  right  beyond  dispute,  but 
the  Chief  Justice  perforce  must  cover  up  one  act  of  despotism  by  an- 
other. He  disbarred  the  two  lawyers,  a  checkmating  move  en  the 
chessboard  against  the  popular  party,  apparently,  for  thus  Zenger 
was  left  without  defense.  There  was  only  one  other  lawyer  in  town, 
Joseph  Murray,  and  he  was  retained  by  the  government.  But  Zen- 
ger's friends,  as  will  be  seen,  were  equal  to  the  emergency.  There 
was  a  long  detention  in  prison  for  him  still  in  stoic,  but  he  was  a 
champion  worthy  of  the  cause.  With  indomitable  resolution  he  con- 
ducted his  paper  from  his  prison  cell,  whispering  directions  t<»  Ins 
journeymen  through  a  hole  in  the  cell  door.  At  last  the  preliminaries 
of  the  trial  were  set  for  late  in  July,  a  counsel,  John  Chambers,  was 
appointed  for  t  he  prisoner  by  t  he  court,  a  jury  was  selected  by  a  proc- 
ess which  made  it  a  "  struck  jury."  and  on  August  4.  1735,  the  pris- 
oner w  as  brought  to  the  bar.  His  counsel  pleaded  "  Not  Guilty."  and 
the  argument  began.  The  passages  complained  of  were  read:  they 
represented  ;t  citizen  of  New  York  who  was  about  to  remove  perma- 
nently to  Pennsylvania,  giving  his  reasons  for  his  change  of  abode. 
In  New  York  liberty  and  property  were  in  danger;  the  people  were 
sinking  into  slavery;  judges  were  removed  without  cause;  new  courts 
erected  in  arbitrary  fashion;  trial  by  jury  set  aside,  and  an  official's 
information  made  sufficient  to  convict;  deeds  were  destroyed,  leaving 
valuable  properly  at  the  mercy  of  the  authorities.  (This  hist  outrage 
Cosby  had  perpetrated  toward  certain  landholders  of  Albany.)  The 
Attorney-General  called  such  language  "false,  scandalous,  and  se- 
ditious." W  hen  he  had  finished  his  speech  there  was  a  stir  in  the 
courtroom,  and  a  venerable  figure  rose  and  came  forward  to  address 
the  jury.  Smith  and  Alexander  had  prepared  a  genuine  surprise  for 
the  Court  and  Governor,  for  this  aged  man.  bearing  the  weight  of 
eighty  years,  was  none  other  than  Andrew  Hamilton,  of  Philadelphia, 
the  foremost  lawyer  and  forensic  orator  in  the  colonies.  He  an 
QOUnced   that   he  appeared  for  Zenger.  the  defendant  in  the  cause. 

u  And,"  he  added,  "  1*11  save  .Mr.  Attorney  the  trouble  of  examining 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


VII 


witnesses;  we  admit  the  publication  of  the  papers."  Bradley  there- 
upon exclaimed:  "  Then  the  verdict  must  be  for  the  King."  "  Not  so, 
neither,  Mr.  Attorney,''  quickly  responded  the  aged  lawyer,  "you 
have  something  more  to  do;  the  words  must  be  proven  libelous." 
This  would  have  been  a  dangerous  expedient  for  Court  and  Governor; 
it  woidd  have  too  glaringly  exposed  the  ugly  facts  of  the  case,  and 
the  illegitimacy  of  their  own  actions.  Hence  Chief -Justice  De  Lancey 
refused  to  allow  the  bringing  of  witnesses  to  prove  that  the  passages 
complained  of  were  correct.  He  claimed  that  the  truth  of  a  libel  made 
it  none  the  less  a  libel,  nay,  a  worse  one.  This  was  an  out-and-out 
Star-Chamber  principle,  as  Hamilton  reminded  him,  for  it  was  the 
undoubted  privilege  of  Englishmen  to  complain  of  unjust  government 
and  oppression.  "  But,"  he  went  on,  "  since  his  honor  refuses  us  the 
liberty  to  prove  our  case,  to  you,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  we  must  now 
appeal  as  witnesses  of  the  facts;  you  are  to  be  judges  now  both  of 
the  law  and  of  the  facts."  He  thereupon  set  out  to  explain  this  point 
to  the  jury,  exhorting  them  as  men  and  citizens  to  bear  in  mind 
what  was  at  stake;  how  the  government  had  sought  in  every 
way  to  hedge  in  and  coyer  its  iniquitous  acts  by  illegitimate 
court  and  civil  proceedings,  till,  to  save  the  cause  of  liberty, 
they  must  go  outside  of  mere  technicalities  and  judge  of  the  mer- 
its of  the  case,  and  the  reality  of  the  facts  complained  of  in  the 
papers,  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  verdict  whether  or  not  the  prisoner 
were  guilty  of  libel,  or  had  spoken  the  truth;  a  truth  which  had  need 
of  being  spoken  to  saye  an  oppressed  people  from  being  utterly  un- 
done. In  conclusion  the  venerable  counselor  said:  "  I  am  truly  un- 
equal to  such  an  undertaking  on  many  accounts.  And  you  see  I  labor 
under  the  weight  of  many  years,  and  am  borne  down  by  many  infirmi- 
ties of  body;  yet,  old  and  weak  as  I  am,  I  should  think  it  my  duty, 
if  required  to  go  to  the  utmost  part  of  t  he  land,  where  my  seryice  could 
be  of  any  use  in  assisting  to  quench  the  flame  of  prosecutions  upon 
informations  set  on  foot  by  the  government  to  deprive  a  people  of  the 
right  of  remonstrating  (and  complaining,  too)  against  the  arbitrary 
attempts  of  men  in  power."  Then  reminding  them  that  the  cause 
before  them  was  net  the  cause  of  a  poor  printer,  or  even  of  New  York, 
but  "  of  every  freeman  upon  the  main  of  America, "  he  ended  with  this 
prophetic  peroration:  "  1  make  no  doubt  but  your  upright  conduct  this 
day  will  not  only  entitle  you  to  the  love  and  esteem  of  your  fellow- 
citizens,  but  every  man  who  prefers  freedom  to  a  life  of  slavery  will 
bless  and  honor  you  as  men  who  have  baffled  the  attempts  of  tyranny, 
and,  by  an  impartial  and  incorrupt,  verdict,  have  laid  a  noble  founda- 
tion for  securing  to  ourselves,  our  posterity,  and  our  neighbors,  that 
to  which  nature  and  the  laws  of  our  country  have  giyen  us  a  right — 
the  liberty  of  both  exposing  and  opposing  arbitrary  power  in  these 
parts  of  the  world,  at  least  by  speaking  and  writing  truth." 

When  these  noble  words  had  ceased  to  flow  from  the  aged  lips  an 


128  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

outburst  of  pent-up  feeling  came  from  the  crowd  that  thronged  the 
courtroom.  Bradley  made  a  brief  reply,  very  tame  and  ineffectual  by 
the  side  of  what  had  just  been  spoken.  Chief-Justice  De  Lancey  at- 
tempted to  persuade  the  jury  that  they  were  no  judges  of  the  law,  and 
the  facts  not  having  been  proved,  the  verdict  must  go  against  the  ac- 
cused. But  Hamilton's  immortal  plea  for  the  cause  of  liberty  and  the 
freedom  of  the  press  was  too  much  for  the  technical  objections  of  a 
judge  notoriously  prejudiced.  <  >nly  a  few  minutes  were  required  for 
the  jury  to  come  to  a  unanimous  verdict.  They  came  back  to  the 
courtroom.  With  breathless  anxiety  the  crowd  awaited  the  an- 
nouncement, and  when  the  words  "  Not  Guilty  "  were  uttered,  tre- 
mendous applause  and  loud  huzzas  drowned  the  voice  of  the  remon- 
strating judge.    Hamilton  was  fairly  carried  from  the  building.  On 

this  and  the  next  day  he  was 
honored  by  banquets.  The 
freedom  of  the  city  in  a  gold 
box  was  presented  to  him  by 
the  Common  Council,  and 
when  he  set  forth  <>n  his  return 
to  Philadelphia,  the  thunder  of 
cannon  bore  salutes  to  him  as 
his  barge  left  the  shores  of 
Manhattan. 

Thus  Cosby  had  given  occa- 
sion to  a  grand  vindication  of 
the  freedom  of  the  press.  Zen- 
ger  went  back  to  his  office  in 
Stone  Street  and  continued  to 
publish  the  Xetc  York  Journal 
until  his  death  in  1740.  It  was 
then  conducted  by  his  widow 
and  son.  John  Zenger.  until 
the  year  IT.")!'.  In  the  mean 
time  the  Xeir  York  Gazette  had 
undergone  some  changes.  Bradford  was  still  living  in  1748.  being  at 
t  hat  time  eighty  years  old,  and  he  lived  ten  years  after  that,  but  about 
that  year  he  gave  up  publishing  his  newspaper.  It  was  continued 
then  by  one  James  Parker,  who  published  it  under  the  double  title  of 
the  New  York  Gazette  <nnl  Weekly  Postboy. 

The  despotic  Cosby  did  not  long  survive  the  famous  trial.  It  is  said 
that  he  suffered  from  consumption,  and  in  March,  17:>t>.  he  died.  But 
he  left  a  legacy  of  trouble  even  after  his  decease.  Some  months  be- 
fore, anticipating  his  end,  he  had  called  his  Council  secretly  around 
him  in  his  sick  chamber  and  announced  that  he  had  suspended  Kip 
Van  Dam  from  the  Council.  It  w  as  again  an  act  utterly  unwarranted 
and  illegal.   No  governor  had  a  right  to  suspend  or  dismiss  a  member 


ANDREW  HAMILTON. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


129 


from  bis  Council  in  this  summary  manner.  After  his  death  Van  Dam 
proceeded  to  take  his  place  as  usual  at  the  Council  table.  Being  Presi- 
dent by  virtue  of  his  long  term  of  office,  he  expected  to  act  as  Gov- 
ernor as  he  had  done  after  the  death  of  Montgomerie.  What  was  his 
amazement  when  he  was  informed  that  he  was  no  longer  a  member, 
and  that  George  Clarke,  formerly  Secretary,  had  been  made  Presi- 
dent by  the  late  Governor.  Van  Dam  was  not  the  man  to  submit 
tamely,  and  he  had  almost  the  entire  population  at  his  back.  When 
Clarke  appointed  the  Mayor  and  other  city  officers  in  September,  Van 
Dam  made  his  own  appointments,  Cornelius  Van  Home  as  Mayor, 
and  William  Smith,  Recorder.  Each  claimant  .appointed  also  a  Sher- 
iff and  Coroner.  Clarke  retired  within  the  fort  and  fell  back  upon  the 
garrison.  Van  Dam  felt  quite  as  secure  in  the  support  of  the  people 
and  the  train-bands.  It  looked  as  if  nothing  short  of  civil  war  could 
come  from  the  strained  situation.  But  finally  on  October  30,  1736, 
word  was  received  from  the  Lords  of  Trade  that  Clarke  had  been  ap- 
pointed Lieutenant-Governor  until  a  suitable  man  could  be  found  for 
Governor.  Clarke  remained  in  office  several  years,  as  it  was  not  till 
1743  that  Cosby 's  successor  arrived  in  the  city.  He  earnestly  sought 
to  allay  the  passions  aroused  by  the  previous  administration;  but  by 
making  too  obvious  an  attempt  to  please  both  sides,  he  drew  down 
upon  himself  the  displeasure  rather  than  the  favor  of  either.  The 
years  of  his  government  passed  along  without  such  fierce  partisan 
conflicts  as  had  disturbed  municipal  harmony  in  the  days  of  the 
Zenger  trial,  but  it  was  during  his  term  that  the  city  was  shaken  to 
its  foundations  by  a  terrible  event  of  quite  another  nature.  This  was 
the  famous  Negro  Plot  of  1741. 

There  was  a  preliminary  negro  scare  twenty-nine  years  before,  in 
1712.  Though  it  did  not  excite  the  town  nearly  so  much  as  the  later 
one,  there  was  really  more  cause  for  alarm,  and  considerably  more  of 
a  plot.  On  April  6,  some  twenty  to  twenty-five  negroes  met  in  the 
orchard  of  a  Mr.  Crooke,  in  Maiden  Lane.  An  outhouse  was  set  on 
fire,  and  when  a  number  of  citizens  ran  to  the  place  to  put  out  the 
flames,  the  negroes  fired  upon  them,  killing  nine  persons  and  wound- 
ing six.  Those  who  escaped  ran  to  the  fort  and  gave  the  alarm  that  a 
plot  was  on  foot  by  the  negroes  to  kill  the  whites,  in  revenge  for  ill 
treatment.  Governor  Hunter  took  prompt  action,  sent  a  body  of  sol- 
diers to  the  scene  of  the  massacre,  beset  the  points  of  egress  from  the 
island,  and  ordering  out  the  militia  the  woods  were  beaten  for  the 
fugitives,  who  had  taken  to  them  at  the  first  sign  of  the  approach  of 
the  troops.  Twenty-one  of  the  poor  wretches  were  caught  and  ex- 
ecuted in  various  barbarous  ways:  hanged,  broken  on  the  wheel, 
burned  at  the  stake,  hung  in  chains  and  left  to  starve.  Six  com- 
mitted suicide  rather  than  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  avenging  whites. 

Slavery  was  a  firmly  rooted  institution  in  NewT  York  as  in  the  other 
colonies,  and  the  slave  trade  one  in  which  great  profits  were  realized) 


i:*o 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


such  ;is  even  royal  persons  deigned  to  share.  In  1713  an  English  com- 
pany was  organized  to  which  was  granted  the  monopoly  of  supplying 
the  Spanish  colonies  w  ith  negro  slaves  for  thirty  years,  one-quarter  of 
whose  slock  was  held  by  Philip  V.  of  Spain,  and  another  quarter  by 
the  humane  and  gentle  Queen  Anne  of  England.  The  agreement  was 
to  furnish  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  slaves  inside  that 
term.  Every  householder  of  any  means  possessed  a  number  of  slaves 
for  the  ordinary  domestic  services.  As  has  been  stated,  an  inventory 
of  Frederick  Philipse's  estate  showed  as  many  as  forty  negroes;  Will- 
iam Smith  had  twelve  in  his  house;  others  had  more  or  less.  On  the 
plantations  in  the  Out  Ward,  or  on  Long  Island,  Staten  Island,  or  in 
Westchester,  troops  of  slaves  did  the  work  required.  Sometimes  as 
many  as  one  hundred  and  eighty  negroes  were  imported  into  the  city 
in  one  year.  Prices  varied  from  forty  to  fifty  and  even  seventy-five 
pounds  per  head.  Even  white  men  and  women  sold  themselves  into 
a  sort  of  slavery  for  debt,  or  to  pay  back  advanced  passage  money; 
but  this,  of  course,  was  not  at  all  like  the  absolute  and  permanent 
and  hopeless  slavery  of  the  blacks.  Neither  was  it  permitted  to  mal- 
treat these  white  slaves  or 
indent  tired  servants,  while 
the  restrictions  upon  the 
punishment  of  negroes  were 
very  slight;  and  even  the  in- 
fliction of  death  did  not 
bring  the  consequences  it 
deserved.  The  public  penal- 
ties that  were  inflicted  upon 
negroes  showed  the  extreme 
barbarity  which  the  community  allowed  themselves  in  the  treatment 
of  these  unfortunates,  who  were  indeed  a  dangerous  element,  but  were 
not  rendered  much  less  dangerous  by  this  mode  of  dealing  with  their 
offenses.  The  gross  injustice  of  the  whole  system  sat  as  a  sort  of 
nightmare  on  the  consciences  of  people;  it  made  them  imagine  that 
they  were  in  constant  peril  from  a  vengeance  which  they  were  only 
too  industrious  in  giving  occasion  for;  and  when, even  the  slightest 
intimations  of  its  outbreak  occurred,  it  was  exaggerated  to  vast  pro- 
portions and  created  a  panic  which  seemed  to  deprive  the  citizens  of 
all  reason  or  justice. 

This  is  the  only  explanation  of  the  panic  of  1741.  It  was  that  more 
than  a  negro  plot :  there  was  much  more  of  a  plot  in  1711*.  as  has  been 
intimated.  Yet  it  cannot  be  denied,  keeping  in  mind  the  state  of 
people's  feeling  about  the  negroes  they  owned  and  maltreated,  that 
the  events  which  led  to  the  panic  could  hardly  have  had  any  other  re- 
sult. Early  on  the  morning  of  March  18,  a  fire  broke  out  on  the  roof 
of  the  chapel  in  the  fort,  the  old  historic  church  of  L642,  w  ithin  a  year 
of  its  century.    The  chapel,  the  Governor's  mansion,  the  Secretary's 


SLAVE  MAKKKT,  KOOT  OK  WALL  STREET. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


office,  the  stables,  all  became  a  prey  of  the  flames.  It  was  a  deplora- 
ble destruction,  but  it  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  an  accident.  Plumb- 
ers bad  been  at  work  upon  the  roof  of  the  chapel,  and  one  of  them 
was  thought  to  have  left  some  of  his  coals  carelessly  about  without 
fully  extinguishing  them.  A  week  later  Captain  (afterward  Admiral 
Sir  Peter)  Warren's  house  was  discovered  to  be  on  Are;  the  contem- 
porary historian  Smith  describes  it  as  situated  "  near  the  long  bridge 
at  the  southwest  end  of  the  city."  thus  near  the  fort.  Again  a  week 
later,  a  Mr.  Van  Zandt's  store  at  the  east  end  of  the  town  was  on  tire. 
Three  days  later  a  fourth  fire  occurred,  started  among  the  hay  in  a 
cow  stable.  People  on  returning  from  this  fire  were  called  upon  to 
rush  to  a  fifth,  in  a  room  occupied  by  two  negro  servants,  and  caused 
by  coals  placed  between  two  beds.  Next  morning  came  fire  num- 
ber six,  from  coals  under  a  haystack  in  the  coach-house  and  stables  of 
lawyer  Joseph  Murray  on  Broadway.  Next  day  there  was  fire  num- 
ber seven  at  Sergeant  Burns's  house,  opposite  the  fort  garden,  the 
site  of  the  later  Burns's  coffee-house  at  No.  9  Broadway.  On  the  same 
day  fire  number  eight  occurred  on  the  roof  of  a  Mr.  Hilton's  house, 
opposite  the  Fly  Market  (near  corner  William  and  John  streets). 
The  same  afternoon  a  ninth  fire  destroyed  Colonel  Philipse's  store- 
house. People  were  now  a  little  warranted  in  growing  suspicious. 
It  was  remembered  how  a  fire  had  been  the  signal  for  the  massacre 
of  1712.  A  ship  manned  with  "  Spanish  blacks  "  had  lately  come  in 
port,  and  the  crew  sold  as  slaves  by  the  Captain,  much  to  the  disgust 
of  the  men.  Spanish  blacks  were  not  necessarily  negroes:  they  were 
swarthy  whites  or  half-breeds  from  the  Spanish  colonies,  with  much 
more  intelligence  and  spirit  than  the  negroes.  Citizens  began  to  put 
two  and  two  together.  So  many  fires  in  rapid  succession  could  not  be 
purely  accidental;  it  must  be  the  work  of  the  negroes — the  slaves, 
"  the  negro  and  other  slaves,"  as  a  publication  of  the  day  puts  it.  It 
was  only  necessary  to  start  this  theory  to  make  it  gain  full  credence. 
On  April  11  the  Common  Council  offered  a  reward  of  a  hundred 
pounds  and  full  pardon  to  any  one  who  would  give  evidence  of  the  ex- 
istence of  a  plot  that  would  lead  to  the  conviction  of  the  conspirators. 
There  were  those  in  desperate  need  of  pardon,  and  ready  to  earn  the 
money  besides.  On  February  28,  thus  a  couple  of  weeks  before  the 
fire  in  the  fort  which  began  the  series,  a  robbery  had  been  committed. 
John  Hughson,  his  wife  and  daughter,  two  indentured  servants,  Mary 
Burton  and  Arthur  Price. and  a  prostitute  by  the  name  of  Peggy,  were 
all  apprehended  for  the  robbery.  Some  of  the  silverware  had  been 
found  in  Hughson's  place,  which  was  a  low  tavern  or  brothel,  fre- 
quented by  negroes  and  thieves.  These  worthies  were  all  under  sen- 
tence of  death,  as  the  law  then  stood.  They  heard  of  the  offer  of 
pardon  and  money  combined,  and  their  wits  were  set  at  work.  Mary 
Burton  seems  to  have  been  more  inventive  than  the  rest.  She  soon 
had  a  fine  tale  ready.   Twenty  to  thirty  negroes  had  been  meeting  at 


132 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


her  master's  bouse,  who  had  plotted  to  destroy  the  town  by  fire,  and 
to  massacre  the  whites.  Her  master,  llughson,  was  to  be  King,  and 
a  negro  of  the  name  of  Csesar,  Oovernor.  Nothing  better  illustrates 
in  what  a  state  of  mind  the  people  must,  have  been  when  such  a  cock- 
and-bull  story  was  accepted  as  serious  truth  on  such  testimony. 
Arthur  Price  and  Peggy  took  the  cue  from  their  worthy  mate,  and 
were  also  soon  weaving  equally  probable  and  circumstantial  stories 
about  midnight  meetings  of  negroes,  and  dreadful  fates  prepared  for 
New  York  citizens.  Evidently  their  imaginations  were  not  of  as  tine 
a  quality  as  Miss  Burton's,  for  they  overshot  the  mark  a  little,  and 
told  things  a  little  too  hard  to  be  swallowed  even  by  people  so  greedy 
for  the  horrible  as  New  Yorkers  were  then.  Over  a  hundred  and  fifty 
negroes  had  now  been  implicated  and  imprisoned  on  the  strength  of 
these  "  confessions."  The  negroes  themselves  caught  the  imaginative 
infection  and  told  lies  right  and  left  about  their  own  kind.  But  were 
there  no  white  people  involved?  Could  not  a  popish  plot  be  tacked  on 
to  the  negro  plot?  It  was  only  necessary  to  give  Mary  that  hint,  and 
forthwith  she  had  a  tale  woven  about  a  Mr.  John  Fry,  a  gentleman 
who  was  teaching  Latin  in  the  city.  He  was  a  Catholic  clergyman  in 
disguise,  according  to  her,  and  he,  too,  had  come  to  her  master's 
place,  and  had  pledged  the  negroes  by  mysterious  signs  and  chalk 
marks  on  the  floor,  to  murder  the  Protestant  town  folk.  Hughson's 
daughter  was  called  upon  to  corroborate  this  testimony,  and  at  first 
she  denied  having  ever  seen  Mr.  Ury  at  her  father's  place.  Bui  the 
prospect  of  the  gallows  was  held  vividly  before  her,  and  she  suc- 
cumbed to  the  temptation  of  lying  away  another's  life  to  save  her 
own.  If  Mr.  Ury  was  a  Catholic  priest  it  needed  but  small  persuasion 
to  convince  New  Y'orkers  of  that  day  that  conspiracy  and  murder 
were  his  daily  task.  Testimony  just  as  valid  was  brought  by  Mary 
Burton  against  a  dancing  master  of  the  name  of  Corry,  but  he  was 
discharged.  Not  so  Ury,  though  it  transpired  that  he  was  not  a  Cat  h- 
olic  at  all,  but  a  non-juring  Episcopal  clergyman;  thus  a  Jacobite, 
and  that  was  next  door  to  a  Catholic  in  loyal  Hanoverian  eyes.  On 
April  21  the  Court  met  for  the  trial  of  the  conspirators,  and  not  a 
lawyer  in  the  city  could  be  found  to  defend  them.  On  May  11  began 
the  executions  of  the  usual  picturesque  varieties:  burning  ami  hang- 
ing; and  on  June  <>  the  last  batch  of  negro  culprits  was  sent  to  their 
long  account.  The  Cry  incident  was  a  little  belated,  and  perhaps  con- 
ducted with  a  little  more  deliberation;  at  any  rate  the  unfortunate 
gentleman  was  not  executed  till  August  20.  One  hundred  and  fifty- 
four  negroes  committed  to  prison,  of  which  fourteen  were  burned 
alive,  eighteen  were  hanged,  and  seventy-one  transported  to  various 
delectable  regions;  twenty-nine  white  persons  apprehended,  of  which 

two,  llughson  and  Cry,  were  executed:  this  is  the  record  of  retalia- 
tion taken  mi  alleged  conspirators  by  a  community  of  twelve  t lien- 
sand  souls,  of  whom  one-sixth  were  shaves.    It  is  amazing  that  so 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


many  lives  could  have  been  sacrificed  on  the  testimony  of  persons  so 
utterly  depraved,  and  so  obviously  eager  to  earn  their  own  escape 
from  the  gallows,  and  the  sum  of  a  hundred  pounds,  which  was  un- 
told wealth  to  them.  Long  after  the  panic  was  over,  officials  and  citi- 
zens were  still  vindicating  their  severity;  and  in  all  sobriety  the  au- 
thorities appointed  (September  21  as  a  Day  of  Thanksgiving  for  the 
city's  escape  from  a  horrible  fate. 

In  the  midst  of  these  vicissitudes  and  during  the  generation  that 
was  nearly  spanned  between  the  arrival  of  Governor  Hunter  and  that 
of  Governor  Clinton,  the  little  city  at  the  southern  end  of  Manhattan 
was  steadily  holding  its  own  on  the  way  to  its  greater  destiny.  With 
regard  to  its  municipal  being,  we  have  noticed  that  the  period  was 
marked  by  the  reception  of  a  new  charter  granting  important  privi- 
leges. A  feature  of  interest,  too,  is  that  so  many  Mayors  held  their 
office  for  long  terms.  Ebenezer  Wilson,  who  was  Mayor  when  Hunter 
arrived  in  1710,  had  been  the  incumbent  for  three  years  previous. 
Jacobus  Van  Cortlandt,  a  younger  son  of  old  Burgomaster  Oloff 
JStevensen  Van  Cortlandt,  and  a  brother  of  Mayor  Stephanus.  was  in- 
vested with  the  dignity  and  held  it  for  only  one  year.  Johannes  Jan- 
seu,  also,  in  1725,  held  the  position  but  for  one  year.  But  all  the 
others  much  exceeded  this.  Caleb  Heathcote  was  Mayor  for  three 
years,  from  1711  to  1711;  John  Johnston,  for  six  years,  from  1711  to 
1720;  Bobert  AValters,  for  five  years,  from  1720  to  1725;  Bobert  Lurt- 
ing,  who  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  receiving  the  new  charter  from  Gov- 
ernor Montgonierie,  was  Mayor  for  nine  years,  from  1726  to  1735. 
Then  followed  Paul  Richard,  with  three  years,  from  1735  to  1738,  and 
Johu  Cruger,  with  six  years,  from  1738  to  1711.  These  men  were  all 
eminent  as  merchants,  having  had  a  variety  of  experiences  fitting 
them  for  success  in  life  before  they  settled  down  to  trade  iu  New 
York;  and  then  accumulating  fortunes  as  merchants,  or  in  real  estate, 
or  as  auctioneers,  or  vendue-masters,  as  they  were  called  them  Most 
of  them,  too,  were  made  members  of  the  Provincial  Council,  and  were 
led  on  to  other  positions  of  public  trust  after  tasting  of  the  sweets  of 
official  power  in  the  Mayor's  chair.  The  municipal  finances  were  not 
as  yet  conducted  upon  a  gigantic  scale,  but  the  expenses  were  almost 
invariably  below  the  income.  Between  1721  and  1727  a  list  shows  the 
highest  income  to  have  been  £721,  in  1723;  and  then  the  expenses 
were  £575,  exactly  the  price  paid  in  1720  for  the  lot  upon  Avhich  the 
Nassau  Street  Church  was  built.  In  the  next  year  the  outlay  was 
two  pounds  less  than  the  income,  and  that  was  £130.  The  Common 
Council  meetings  were  appointed  in  1711  to  be  held  on  the  first  Friday 
of  the  month,  at  the  City  Hall,  at  9  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Eighteen 
rush-bottom  chairs  were  purchased  that  year,  and  an  oval  table  for 
the  Council  chamber.  The  City  Hall  up  to  1716  had  not  been  provided 
with  a  clock.  Indeed,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  town  clock  any- 
where, and  only  a  sun  dial  upon  the  chapel  in  the  fort.    When  the 


134 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


wealthy  Huguenot  merchant,  Stephen  l>e  Lancey,  received  his  sti- 
pend of  £50  as  Member  of  tbe  Assembly  upon  its  dissolution  in  1716, 
be  generously  donated  that  suui  for  tbe  purchase  of  a  clock  for  tbe 
City  Hall  tower.  One  was  put  in  witb  four  dials,  so  as  to  indicate  tbe 
time  to  an  observer  in  any  portion  of  tbe  city.  From  time  to  time  tbe 
city  watch  was  increased,  first  from  four  to  six,  and  tben  1,0  ten,  as 
more  streets  needed  protection.  It  was  to  Stephen  De  Lancey 's  en- 
ter] »rise  also  that  tbe  city  was  indebted  for  tbe  importation  of  two 
fire  engines,  of  tbe  pattern  used  in  London,  to  supersede  tbe  priniit  Lve 
passing  of  buckets  from  band  to  band.  Tbey  were  placed  witb  mucb 
stale  in  an  apartment  on  tbe  lower  floor  of  tbe  City  Hall,  wThicb  was 
flush  witb  tbe  pavement,  forming  an  arched  passageway  to  which  ac- 
cess was  open  at  all  times.  But  a  few  years  later  an  engine  bouse  w  as 
built  on  Broad  Street,  and  one  Jacobus  Turk  placed  in  charge  of  the 
macbines.  In  1737  a  volunteer  fire  brigade  was  organized,  consisting 
of  twenty-five  men,  who,  in  consideration  of  tbis  important  service, 

were  exempt  from  jury  and 
militia  duty,  and  from  serving 
as  constables.  Quite  early  in 
the  century  tbe  city  fathers 
were  troubled  about  the  pau- 
per problem;  at  last,  in  1 7 ' 1 4 . 
they  had  got  so  far  as  to  be 
able  to  put  up  a  substantial, 
square,  roomy  building  as  a 
Poorhouse.  It  stood  upon  the 
Commons,  later  City  Hall 
Park;  there  were  cells  in  the 
basement,  so  that  correction 
might  accompany  charity, 
particularly  for  the  benefit  of  negroes.  It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  city 
magistrates  t  bat  tbey  did  not  propose  to  get  rid  of  the  poor  by  sacrific- 
ing tbe  liberty  of  these  unfortunates,  as  they  might  on  one  occasion 
have  done,  in  1738  Captain  Xorris,  of  tbe  English  man-of-war  "  Tar- 
tar," arrived  in  port.  He  represented  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
and  Council  that  be  was  very  short-handed,  and  needed  at  least  thirty 
men.  He  therefore  asked  permission  to  send  a  press-gang  ashore  and 
impress  that  number  from  among  the  city's  population.  Clarke  and 
the  Council  granted  the  request,  but  Mayor  Richard  and  his  Alder- 
men indignantly  refused  to  allow  the  English  Captain  to  let  loose  bis 
gang  upon  the  streets,  and  Norris  was  fain  to  seek  his  thirty  men 
elsewhere.  A  considerable  portion  "I'  the  city's  limited  bul  evidently 
sufficient  income  was  derived  from  leasing  ferry  privileges.  The 
landing  places  even  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  rivers  stood  on  prop- 
erty ceded  to  the  city  by  the  .Montgomerie  charter.  In  1  70S  a  charter 
had  been  made  out  referring  exclusively  to  ferry  privileges.   A  ferry 


NEW  YOKK  ALMSHOUSE.  1734. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


135 


to  Staten  Island  was  established  in  1713,  the  fare  for  a  man  alone,  as 
well  as  with  a  horse,  being  six  shillings.  A  ferry  to  the  Jersey  shore 
was  established  at  the  foot  of  Cortlandt  Street.  The  fare  to  Long 
Island  was  three  shillings  the  person;  the  old  ferry  was  supplemented 
by  a  second,  boats  leaving  from  Hanover  Square  (or  Old  Slip)  and 
foot  of  Broad  Street,  where  was  the  great  dock.  In  1728  this  ferry 
paid  a  lease  of  £258.  On  the  Long  Island  shore  stood  now  a  goodly 
brick  building  three  and  a  half  stories  high  with  crow-stepped  gable, 
surrounded  by  commodious  barns  and  outhouses,  while  under  the 
shelter  of  the  bold  cliff  now  known  as  Brooklyn  Heights  was  a  pound 
for  the  reception  of  the  cattle  to  be  ferried  across  or  just  brought  over 
from  New  York;  a  short  wharf  ran  out  into  tlie  river,  and  the  one- 


BROOKLYN  FERRY. 


masted  open  sloop  was  kept  busy  conveying  passengers  of  the  human 
or  brute  species  as  fast  as  it  could  across  the  swift  current  of  the 
East  Biver. 

Another  source  of  income  was  the  lease  of  market  privileges.  Mar- 
ket houses  were  built  at  various  times  and  in  different  localities.  A 
market  house  was  erected  on  Broad  Street,  opposite  the  City  Hall, 
on  the  slope  from  Wall  Street  to  Exchange  Place.  The  open  space  in 
front  of  the  fort  was  no  longer  deemed  suitable  for  a  market;  some 
genial  citizens  rented  it  for  a  nominal  sum  and  converted  it  into  a 
Bowling  Green.  In  1739  a  large  market  house,  42  feet  long  by  25 
broad,  was  built  in  the  center  of  Broadway  opposite  Crown  (Liberty) 
Street,  presumably  to  accommodate  the  Jersey  farmers  and  truckmen. 


13(3 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


One  wonders  whether  it  conduced  to  the  comfort  of  Chief- Justice  De 
Lancey,  whose  elegant  house  stood  near  it  on  the  corner  of  Little 
Cjueen  (Cedar)  Street,  where  the  Boreel  Building  towers  to-day.  A 
great  variety  of  produce  and  provisions  came  in  to  these  markets  from 
the  surrounding  country.    In  addition  to  all  the  game,  fruit,  vege- 
tables, fish,  and  what  not,  of  a  former  day,  there  was  added  tne  lobster 
in  abundant  quantities.    It  had  not  been  caught  in  the  vicinity  of 
New  York  until  a  fortunate  accident  happened  in  Governor  Hunter  s 
time.    A  "  well-boat,"  conveying  a  load  of  lobsters  stored  away  iu 
their  native  element,  from  the  regions  of  New  England  to  the  New 
York  market,  struck  a  rock  in  the  ever  perilous  Hell  Gate,    it  weut 
to  pieces,  and  thus  released  its  live  freight,  which  ever  after  made  the 
vicinity  of  New  York  their  habitat.    As  for  oysters,  none  better  or 
bigger  or  more  abundant  were  found  anywhere  else  than  in  New  York 
harbor.   To  preserve  so  delicious  a  staple  the  Assembly  passed  a  spe- 
cial act,  No.  9,  of  the  year  1730.    A  too  free  access  to  the  oyster  beds 
was  threatening  the  extermination  of  the  bivalves.    In  1745  Prof. 
Kalm,  a  Swedish  scientist,  descants  on  the  excellence  of  the  oyster, 
and  says  they  were  as  big  as  a  plate;  presumably  a  dinner  plate,  and 
not  a  butter  plate.   It  must  be  added  that  in  1732  a  market  was  estab- 
lished at  the  foot  of  Fulton  Street  on  the  North  River,  and  this  must 
have  been  the  beginning  of  the  famous  Washington  Market.  Indus- 
tries of  various  kinds  were  still  in  their  infancy.   In  1718  the  first  rope 
walk  was  built,  extending  along  what  is  now  Broadway,  abont  the 
Whole  length  of  City  Hall  Park  from  Barclay  Street  or  Park  Place  to 
Chambers  Street.   Many  others  soon  sprang  up.   One  ran  all  the  way 
from  Broadway  to  the  river  along  Cortlandt  Street,  cutting  off  about 
fifteen  feet  from  every  lot  on  the  north  side;  it  was  owned  or  Leased 
by  a  citizen  of  the  name  of  Van  Pelt.   It  was  doubtless  in  connection 
with  this  industry  that  the  spirit  of  invention  was  stimulated,  for  we 
find  one  John  Marsh  asking  the  authorities  for  a  patent  for  the  space 
of  fifteen  years  for  a  process  of  dressing  hemp  and  llax  by  mill. 
Whales  must,  still  have  made  occasional  visits  to  the  bay  or  nearby 
ocean,  for  "James  Cooper  and  Company"  were  given  a  license  to 
catch  them,  in  1721,  on  condition  of  paying  a  tribute  of  five  per  cent, 
of  w  hat  they  got  for  the  oil  and  whalebones.    In  L726  one  Lew  is  Hec- 
tor I'iot  De  Langloserie  was  endued  by  legislative  act  with  the  soh 
right  to  catch  porpoises;  he  doubtless  made  his  harpoons  of  t  he  proper 
length  by  painting  his  name  in  its  full  proportions  along  the  shaft 
Another  act  made  a  widow  happy  by  allowing  her  to  make  lampblack 
exclusively  for  ten  years;  but  a  futile  attempt  having  been  made  by  a 
certain  citizen  to  become  a  "  sugar  refiner,"  his  monopoly  was  with- 
drawn in  1727.    The  map  of  172S  showed  that  Bayard  had  a  sugar 
house  in  Wall  Street  near  the  City  Hall.    It  seems  rather  odd  that  the 
authorities,  while  thus  encouraging  industries  of  so  many  sorts, 
should  have  refused  William  Bradford,  the  printer,  a  monopoly  for 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


137 


the  manufacture  of  paper.  He  accordingly  established  a  paper  mill 
in  New  Jersey,  lu  1730  there  was  erected  "  on  the  fifth  lot  from  the 
comer  of  Centre  and  Keade  Streets  "  what  is  described  as  "  a  stone- 
ware kiln  or  furnace."  It  is  claimed  by  some  that  tins  was  the  first 
smelting  furnace  for  the  reduction  of  iron  ore  in  the  United  States. 
In  1842  some  portions  of  one  of  the  arches  of  this  kiln  were  still  iu 
existence. 

An  evidence  of  the  general  condition  of  trade,  commerce,  and  manu- 
factures is  afforded  by  a  list  preserved  among  the  records  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  showing  total  imports  and  exports  for  several 
successive  decades.  From  1710  to  1720  the  imports  were  £365,645; 
exports,  £392,083.  From  1720  to  1730,  imports  £471,342;  exports, 
£518,830.  From  1730  to  1740,  imports,  £060,136;  exports,  £070,128. 
Thus  Avithin  these  thirty  years  at  least  the  balance  of  trade  kept 
pretty  well  on  the  side  of  the  colony.  The  Custom  House  stoodon  Pearl 
Street,  between  Whitehall  and  Broad,  or  what  was  then  called  Dock 
Street.  Here  duties  were  collected  on  a  great  variety  of  articles.  Wigs 
were  taxed  to  discourage  the  wearing  of  them.  In  1734  the  duty  on 
tea  was  one  shilling  per  pound,  and  on  cider  one  shilling  per  barrel. 
Three  shillings  had  to  be  paid  on  every  barrel  of  pork,  and  two  shill- 
ings on  every  barrel  of  beef  imported.  An  annual  tax  of  one  shilling 
was  laid  on  every  slave  owned;  a  duty  of  forty  shillings  being  exacted 
for  every  slave  imported  from  Africa  direct,  and  one  of  four  pounds 
for  those  brought  from  other  places.  A  tax  of  three  per  cent,  was  im- 
posed on  auction  sales,  and  as  vendues  were  very  frequent  in  the  city, 
a  goodly  sum  must  have  been  realized  from  this  item  alone.  So  con- 
fident were  the  authorities  of  good  returns  from  all  these  duties  and 
taxes  that  the  £10,000  or  £12,000  occasionally  pledged  for  the  Cana- 
dian campaigns,  and  covered  by  the  issue  of  paper  money,  were  <■> 
pected  to  be  redeemed  from  their  income.  One  very  active  depart- 
ment of  trade  was  stopped  by  Governor  Burnet.  French  traders  were 
in  the  habit  of  buying  goods  for  their  Indian  trade  at  New  York. 
These  they  carried  to  Montreal  or  Quebec,  and  induced  the  Indians 
to  come  to  those  places  for  their  supplies,  bringing  their  furs  in  ex- 
change. Thus  the  French  ingratiated  the  savages  and  made  them 
dependent  upon  themselves  alone,  which  was  useful  in  the  event  of 
war.  Burnet  forbade  the  merchants  of  New  York  selling  goods  to 
these  traders.  It  was  a  patriotic  measure,  but  it  roused  the  bitter  an- 
tagonism of  Philipse,  De  Lancey,  and  other  great  dealers.  The  In- 
dians were  henceforth  compelled  to  get  their  supplies  from  the  Eng- 
lish, causing  more  friendly  relations.  It  also  sent  enterprising  young 
men  from  New  York  mercantile  families  into  the  woods  to  secure  ex- 
changes of  furs.  This  was  of  incalculable  benefit  to  them  in  many 
ways  besides  commercial  profits,  and  Burnet's  act  should  have 
brought  him  lasting  gratitude  instead  of  hostility.  Piracy  was  still 
active  upon  the  high  seas,  and  near  the  principal  harbors,  and  did 


138  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

much  harm  to  commerce;  but  it  was  bona  tide  piracy,  receiving  now 
no  countenance  from  royal  governors  or  respectable  New  York  mer- 
chants. 

Turning  from  the  material  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people, 
we  uote  that  the  march  of  churches  uptown-ward  kept  steadily  on. 
Beginning  with  the  church  of  1633  in  Pearl  Street,  the  next  was  put 
up  in  the  fort  in  1642;  and  a  third  in  Garden  Street  (Exchange  Place) 
in  1G93.  We  come  upon  a  new  edifice  erected  during  this  period  on 
Nassau  Street,  on  a  lot  reaching  from  Little  Queen  (Cedar)  Street, 
to  Crown  (Liberty).  The  lot  was  bought  for  £575  in  1726,  and  in  1721) 
the  building  was  ready  for  worship,  but  was  not  quite  complete  till 
1731.  It  was  a  noble  building  for  its  day,  one  hundred  feet  lon^  by 
seventy  wide  inside  the  walls.  W  hen  it  was  all  finished  a  copper  plate 
was  made  of  it,  and  as  a  member  of  the  church  was  t  hen  acting  G<>\  er- 
uor,  the  i>l<it<  was  dedicated  to  him.  This  has  led  an  excellent  his- 
torian el'  our  city  to  state  that  the 
church  was  dedicated  to  Rip  Van  Dam. 
Esq.  In  one  corner  of  the  picture  we 
can  just  see  the  old  Freuch  church  in 
King  (Pine)  Street,  facing  with  its  odd 
tower  toward  Little  Queen  (Cedar). 
Here  some  trouble  had  occurred  be- 
tween the  elders  and  one  of  the  pas- 
tors. They  had  two  pastors,  the  Rev. 
Mons.  Roii  and  the  Rev.  Mons.  Mouli- 
nars.  The  former  was  brilliant,  but  a 
little  bad;  the  latter  was  good,  but  a 
trifle  dllll.  The  elders  felt  they  must 
get  rid  of  Mons.  Eon.  and  he  appealed 
to  Governor  Burnet,  who  was  a  great 
chum  of  his.  ami  who  was  quite  ready 
to  assume  his  seat  upon  the  Chancellor's  bench  to  try  his  case.  There- 
upon the  elders  withdrew  their  cause,  seeing  too  well  what  the  issue 
would  be.  Rut  what  was  worse,  they  withdrew  from  the  church 
also.  One  of  them  was  Stephen  De  Lancey;  he  became  a  deter- 
mined antagonist  of  the  Governor's,  a  state  of  mind  whic  h  was 
not  mended  when  the  latter  called  in  question  his  citizenship, 
and  would  have  excluded  him  from  the  Assembly  to  which  he 
had  been  elected.  There  was  no  way  of  avoiding  annoying  inter- 
ference of  the  state  with  the  church  in  these  colonial  days.  The 
French  Church  had  found  so  to  their  cost:  the  Presbyterians  had 
even  a  worse  experience.  In  1718  they  bought  a  large  lot  on 
Wall  Street,  about  opposite  New  Street.  In  order  to  hold  this 
property  and  build  a  church  on  it,  they  wished  to  be  incorporated. 
Their  petition  was  refused.  They  tried  again  and  again  through  a 
number  of  years,  from  1721  to  1724.    In  vain.    At  last,  in  1724,  Cover- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


nor  Burnet  wrote  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  about  it,  and  they  referred 
it  to  their  counsel,  who  wrote  this  opinion:  "  As  there  is  no  provincial 
act  for  uniformity  according  to  the  Church  of  England,  1  am  of  opin- 
ion that  by  law  such  patent  of  incorporation  may  be  granted  as  by  the 
petition  is  desired/'  Accordingly  it  was  done.  But  the  canny  Scotch- 
men had  meanwhile  deeded  their  lot  to  the  General  Assembly  in  Scot- 
land, and  in  1719  had  put  up  a  goodly  building  upon  it.  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Anderson  was  their  pastor.  It  has  to  be  said  that  the  Episcopalians 
were  responsible  for  this  ungracious  delay  in  giving  the  Presbyterians 
their  rights.  They  would  have  it  that  theirs  alone  was  the  estab- 
lished church,  that  no  others  had  a  right  to  exist,  or  to  draw  suste- 
nance from  the  citizens.  Mr.  Vesey  was  led  to  say  very  hard  things 
about  Governor  Hunter  because  he  sought  to  do  justice  to  the  Presby- 
terians of  Jamaica,  so  iniquitously  ejected  from  their  property  by 
Cornbury.  Governor  Burnet  had  the  honor  of  finally  settling  the 
matter  in  the  interests  of  the  rightful  owners  in  1728.  Stimulated  by 
the  activity  of  the  Dutch  in  church  building,  the  people  of  Trinity 
enlarged  and  embellished  their  church  in  1737.  A  steeple  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  feet  high  towered  above  all  the  rest  of  the  steeples. 
Inside  a  fine  altar  piece  was  added.  The  tops  of  the  pillars  were 
adorned  with  gilt  busts  of  angels,  and  a  glass  candelabra  hung  from 
the  ceiling.  Not  to  be  behind  its  ancient  sisters,  the  French  church 
put  on  a  new7  and  handsomer  form  in  1741.  As  regards  toleration  the 
Quakers  and  Jews  were  given  greater  privileges  than  before.  It  is 
true  that  once  at  a  contested  election  in  Westchester,  when  it  was  a 
question  whether  Adolph  Philipse  was  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the  Assem- 
bly, the  Jews  were  counted  out  as  disfranchised;  as  were  also  the 
Quakers  when  a  similarly  hot  contest  at  the  polls  was  waged  at  Mor- 
risania  between  Morris,  the  ex-Chief-Justice,  and  De  Lancey,  the  in- 
cumbent who  had  been  put  in  his  place.  But  the  Quakers  were  dis- 
tinctly declared  entitled  to  vote  upon  their  affirmation,  instead  of  an 
oath,  when  the  excitement  blew  over.  The  JewTs  were  allowed  to 
build  a  synagogue  in  Mill  Street,  now  South  William;  and  also  to  hold 
in  possession  ground  for  a  cemetery,  the  funds  for  which  were  given  in 
1729  by  a  Mr.  Willey  of  London,  whose  three  sons  were  merchants  in 
New  York.  The  cemetery  was  located  in  the  block  bounded  by 
Chatham,  Oliver,  Henry,  and  Catharine  streets,  far  out  in  the  coun- 
try then.  As  to  schools,  a  draft  for  an  act  establishing  a  free  Latin 
and  Greek  school  was  prepared  by  Adolph  Philipse,  and  passed  by 
the  Assembly,  and  Alexander  Malcom  appointed  the  teacher  of  the 
same.  His  salary  was  £100,  yet  as  some  one  wrote:  "  God  kens,  little 
he  is  skilled  in  Learning,  yet  they  think  him  a  highly  Learned  man." 
The  preamble  of  this  act  caused  much  merriment  at  the  time.  Cooper 
introduces  it  in  his  "  Satanstoe,"  and  discusses  it  with  all  seriousness. 
It  read:  "  Whereas  the  youth  of  this  colony  are  found  by  manifold  ex- 
perience to  be  not  inferior  in  their  natural  geniuses  to  the  youth  of 
any  other  country  in  the  world,  therefore  be  it  enacted." 


140 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Sanitary  conditions  were  as  yet  very  unsatisfactory  in  the  little 
city,  and  frequent  were  the  scourges  of  the  pestilence.  In  Cornbury's 
time  there  was  an  epidemic.  In  1725  a  vessel  with  smallpox  aboard 
arrived  from  Madeira,  and  one  of  the  sick  men  came  recklessly  into 
town.  He  was  quickly  conveyed  back  aboard,  and  the  ship  ordered 
to  anchor  amid  stream  near  Bedlow's  Island.  It  does  not  appear  that 
the  infection  spread  this  time.  But  in  1731  the  smallpox  visited 
the  city,  so  that  five  hundred  perished,  and  Governor  Montgomerie 
was  one  of  the  victims.  In  1737  yellow  fever  raged  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  at  once  quarantine  regulations  were  established.  A  sloop  was 
sent  out  to  meet  vessels  coining  from  West  Indian  ports,  which  were 
compelled  to  anchor  off  Bedlow's  Island.  In  173l>  smallpox  was  again 
in  the  city,  beginning  in  the  spring.  As  it  continued  to  rage  up  to  the 
time  set  for  the  Assembly,  the  Council  and  Assembly  met  at  the 
house  of  Harnianus  Butgers,  on  the  Bowery  Boad.  near  the  Collect 
Bond.  Curiously  enough  this  very  pond  had  been  complained  of  as  a 
plague  spot  in  Montgomerie's  time.  Rutgers  applied  for  permission 
to  put  into  operation  a  system  of  ditches  and  sluices  w  hereby  its 
waters  could  derive  the  benefit  of  the  changing  tides.  This  he  pro- 
posed to  do  at  his  own  cost  if  the  surrounding  land  could  be  guaran- 
teed to  him  and  his  heirs  in  return.  The  territory  must  have  been 
granted,  and  the  result  of  the  work  done  must  have  been  satisfactory 
if  in  1739  the  neighborhood  was  considered  a  health  resort.  In  1712 
yeliow  fever  claimed  two  hundred  and  fifty  victims  in  the  city. 

With  some  disadvantages  like  these,  to  which  cities  all  over  the 
world  were  then  subject;  with  frequently  unlit  or  corrupt  men  as 
governors;  with  much  that  was  crude,  primitive,  tentative,  uncertain 
of  profitable  results,  threatening  disaster,  and  promoting  instability 
of  fortune  or  prosperity :  yet  New  York  was  a  place  worth  coming  to 
for  t  liose  who  found  the  ways  to  promol ion  and  weaH  h  closed  to  t  hem 
at  home.  A' relative  of  lawyer  Joseph  Murray  urged  brothers  and 
sisters  and  friends  to  come  to  New  York.  Trades  were  good,  wages 
high,  provisions  plenty  and  cheap,  "  a  bushel  of  Indian  corn  for  a 
day's  work.''  Land  was  easily  obtainable,  "  ten  pounds  per  acre,  and 
ten  years  to  pay  it  in,''  so  that  small  savings  could  soon  make  one  a 
land-holder.  There  was  a  chance  for  everybody.  Servants  who  came 
indentured  and  had  served  their  time  out,  were  now  Justices  of  the 
Peace.  All  that  a  man  worked  for  was  his  own.  No  ravenous 
hounds  "to  rive  it  from  us  here."  No  one  to  take  away  your  corn  or 
potatoes.  "  Every  yen  enjoys  his  ane."  No  wonder  that  such  a  glow  - 
ing description,  based  on  facts,  induced  men  to  cross  the  ocean  and 
set  t  le  in  our  good  city  of  New  York. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


A  COLONIAL  CAPITAL. 

T  New  York,"  writes  the  author  of  that  charming  biogra- 
phy,  "  An  American  Lady,"  ,k  at  IJew  York  there  was  al- 
ways a.  Governor,  a  few  troops,  and  a  kind  of  little  court 
kept;  there  too  was  a  mixed, and, in  some  degree,  polished 
society.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  upper  settlement 
[Albany]  who  had  any  pretensions  to  superior  culture  or  polish,  to 
go  once  a  year  to  New  York,  where  all  the  law  courts  were  held,  and 
all  the  important  business  of  the  province  was  transacted.  Here, 
too,  they  sent-  their  children  occasionally  to  reside  with  their  rela- 
tions, and  to  learn  the  more  polished  manners  and  language  of  the 
capital."  A  colonial  capital, — that,  then,  is  what  New  York  was  rec- 
ognized to  be  at  this  period  in  its  history.  But  the  time  now  is  hasten- 
ing on  when  there  will  cease  to  be  a  colony  here. 
Ere  the  change  comes  let  us  take  a  good  look  at 
our  city  under  this  interesting  aspect. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  there  gathered  about 
the  Governor's  mansion,  in  the  fort,  what  might 
be  called  "  a  little  court.''    The  Governor  was 
the  representative  of  majesty,  and  the  incum- 
colonial  cocked     bents  of  the  office  were  men  sometimes  of  noble 
hat.  rank,  and  always  of  the  circle  of  the  court  at 

home,  favorites  of  royalty,  attendants  upon  the 
King's  person.  The  usages  of  English  society  were  industriously 
adapted  to  social  life  at  the  capital,  and  these  radiated  from  the  Gov- 
ernor's mansion  or  Province  House  as  a  center  and  a  source.  The  ap- 
pointments of  the  Governor's  household  exhibited  the  state  which  he 
affected.  An  inventory  of  Montgomerie's  effects  after  his  death  is  pre- 
served, and  this  shows  what  even  a  bachelor  Chief  Magistrate  needed 
to  set  forth  the  dignity  of  his  position.  There  were  fine  coaches  and 
sixteen  horses;  blue  cloth  for  liveries;  elegant  sets  of  harness  for  occa- 
sions of  state;  also  a  barge  of  state  handsomely  decorated  and  uphol- 
stered; and  abundance  of  silver  plate.  Whenever  the  Governor  rode 
out,  servants  in  livery,  and  outriders,  attested  the  importance  of  the 
personage  approaching.  Cosby  especially  made  the  Governor's  man- 
sion the  center  of  fashionable  entertainments.  However  much  he 
might  have  been  detested  by  the  common  people,  and  by  those  in  offi- 
cial life  whom  he  found  it  expedient  to  antagonize,  the  gay  and  aspir- 


142 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


ing  bon  Ion  of  the  cosmopolitan  towu  rejoiced  ill  the  frequent  invita- 
tions to  functions  of  importance  and  brilliancy  at  his  house.  These 
received  particular  eclat  one  winter  by  the  appearance  of  one  Lord 
Fitzroy,  the  son  and  heir  of  the  Duke  of  ( irafton.  The  sturdy  Common 
Council,  defying  Cosby's  commands  to  burn  Zenker's  paper  by  the 
hands  of  the  common  hangman,  were  quite  obsequious  when  it  came 
to  a  real  live  son  of  a  duke.  They  waited  upon  the  youth  with  great 
solemnity,  and  presented  him  with  the  freedom  of  the  city,  encased  in 
a  box  of  gold.  Cosby's  wife  was  an  Earl's  daughter,  a  sister  of  Lord 
Halifax,  Minister  for  the  Colonies.  Fitzroy's  real  errand  to  New  York 
was  soon  manifest,  when  he  secretly  married  one  of  Cosby's  daugh- 
ters. Another  daughter  married  the  lawyer  Joseph  Murray.  In  such 
circles  the  manners  of  the  court  at  home  were  diligently  followed, 
and  their  influence  must  have  been  felt  in  the  homes  of  people  of 
wealth  throughout  the  city,  so  that  a  certain  polish  would  be  given  to 
society  at  the  capital,  worth  cultivating  on  the  part  of  young  people 
coming  from  Albany  and  elsewhere.  A  "  little  court  "  was  kept,  that 
was  certain;  but  however  little,  it  gave  distinction  to  life  in  New 
York. 

But  while  the  Governor  of  New  York  might  reign  supreme  as  a 
social  luminary,  he  found  extremely  little  deference  on  points  of 
public  policy.  No  one  experienced  this  more  constantly  and  keenly 
than  Governor  George  Clinton,  who  arrived  at  his  post  in  1743,  and 
ruled  the  Colony  exactly  ten  years.  He  came  over  with  his  wife  and 
several  children,  among  whom  was  the  future  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  British  forces  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  Sir  Henry 
Clinton.  The  Governor  was  a  younger  son  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln, 
and  so  far  his  appointment  secured  the  maintenance  of  the  traditions 
of  the  little  court.  He  was  a  naval  officer  of  high  rank,  and  not  at  all 
fitted  by  his  experience  or  temperament  to  deal  with  a  colonial  assem- 
bly that  had  had  a  taste  of  liberty,  and  the  exercise  of  important  pre- 
rogatives ever  since  the  days  of  Cornbury.  Then  the  representatives 
of  the  people  had  arrogated  to  themselves  the  right  to  vote  supplies 
for  the  needs  of  government  only  from  year  to  year,  and  had  taken 
it  upon  themselves  to  appoint  a  provincial  treasurer;  all  for  the  rea- 
son that  Cornbury  was  not  to  be  trusted.  These  privileges  once  exer- 
cised in  an  emergency  such  as  the  authorities  at  home  doubtless  rec- 
ognized, and  on  which  account  they  tolerated  them  for  the  moment, 
were  not  now  so  easily  to  be  wrested  from  t  he  Assembly.  Every  Gov- 
ernor from  Lord  Lovelace  to  Clinton,  and  many  an  one  later,  was  ex- 
pressly instructed  to  demand  grants  in  the  lump  sums,  and  for  sev- 
eral years  at  once;  it  was  of  no  avail.  The  New  York  Assembly  was 
not  to  be  moved  from  their  position;  indeed  they  became  more  ag- 
gressive. In  the  course  of  the  controversy  they  even  refused  to  grant 
money  for  salaries  of  officers,  except  by  name;  which  amounted  to  an 
assumption  of  the  appointing  power,  usually  the  province  of  the  exec- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


utive  aloue.  Holding  the  purse,  they  had  a  powerful  advantage  over 
the  Governors,  and  instructions  from  the  home  government  went  for 
very  little,  or  nothing. 

Clinton's  long  term  was  one  incessant  contest  with  the  Assembly, 
much  aggravated  by  his  constant  want  of  tact.  He  gratified  at  first 
the  soaring  ambition  of  Chief-Justice  De  Lancey,  but  when  he  had 
alienated  him  in  some  hasty  moment,  this  able  man  and  all  the  in- 
fluential following  he  could  command  was  turned  against  him.  As  a 
matter  of  course,  after  the  stand  he  took  during  Cosby's  term,  De 
Lancey  might  be  regarded  as  devoted  to  the  "  Court"  party;  and  in 
the  beginning  Clinton  wras  prepared  to  take  things  easy,  and  leave  the 
real  brunt  of  government  to  the  Chief-Justice.  During  these  days 
of  friendship  and  harmony  De  Lancey  constantly  urged  him  to  change 
the  tenure  by  which  he  held  his  olfice  from  one  "  at  the  pleasure  "  of 
the  Governor,  to  one  depending  upon 
"  good  behavior."  The  latter,  of 
course,  relieved  the  incumbent  from 
dependence  upon  the  caprice  of  the 
Governor;  he  could  only  be  removed 
for  cause,  and  not  at  a  mere  nod,  as 
Morris  had  been.  Whether  De  Lancey 
was  only  waiting  for  this  change  of 
tenure  in  order  to  show  his  real  hostil- 
ity, as  Clinton  charged,  or  whether 
some  good  cause  for  offense  was  given 
him,  at  any  rate  soon  after  the  change 
had  been  effected  the  Chief-Justice 
made  a  complete  turn  about  in  his  re- 
lations to  the  Governor.  It  was  said 
they  quarreled  over  their  "  cups." 
Little  as  the  Assembly  was  disposed 
to  heed  Clinton's  instructions  before,  now,  under  the  leadership  of  De 
Lancey  and  his  adherents,  the  opposition  was  unremitting  and  often 
acrimonious.  But  as  another  result  of  this  detachment  of  De  Lancey 
from  the  court  party,  it  must  be  noted  that  thereby,  from  their  invet- 
erate antagonism  to  him.  Smith  and  Alexander,  of  the  popular  party, 
were  perforce  driven  to  side  with  the  Governor. 

This  shifting  ground  of  politics  also  brings  into  relief  another  citi- 
zen of  New  York,  who  deserves  more  than  a  moment's  notice,  and  will 
play  an  increasingly  conspicuous  part  as  the  years  run  on  toward  the 
Revolution.  Dr.  Cadwallader  Colden,  after  taking  his  degree  in  medi- 
cine at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  came  to  Philadelphia  in  1716. 
Two  years  later  he  was  induced  by  Governor  Hunter  to  settle  in  New 
York.  He  soon  turned  from  the  practice  of  his  profession  to  the  more 
profitable  business  of  landholder.  He  occupied  various  positions  of 
honor  and  trust  in  the  province.  But  while  a  man  of  affairs  in  the  con- 


CADWALLADEK  COLDEN. 


144 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


duct  of  civil  governihent,  he  was  active  also  iu  the  pursuits  of  science 
and  literature,  lie  wrote  a  "  History  of  the  Five  Indian  Nations," 
printed  by  William  Bradford  in  New  York  in  1727,  which  was  consid- 
ered an  authority  of  the  highest  value.  He  kept  up  correspond- 
ence with  men  of  learning  and  science,  including  Franklin  him- 
self, and  gained  an  enviable  reputation  both  in  Europe  and 
In  Cosby's  time  his  liberal  sentiments  placed  him  on 
of  Smith  and  Alexander,  his  fellow-countrymen;  and 
Lancey's  change  of  front,  he  still  kept  in  line  with 
their  unnatural  attac  hment  to  Clinton.     It  mav  be  said 


America, 
the  side 
after  De 
them  in 


right  here,  however,  that  before  the  end  of  Clinton's  career  as 
Governor  of  New  York,  even  Colden  had  to  withdraw  his  sup- 
port. But  at  first,  in  the  dismay  caused  by  De  Lancey's  sudden 
defection,  Clinton  turned  to  Colden  and  bestowed  upon  him  that 
friendship  and  reliance  which  the  other  had  forfeited  and  betrayed. 

Clinton  had  conceived  an  idea,  which 
he  was  constantly  pressing  upon  the 
Lords  of  Trade,  that  it  would  be 
highly  beneficial  to  make  the  office  of 
Lieutenant-Governor  a  permanent 
one  concurrent  with  that  of  Governor. 
He  was  evidently  bent  on  shifting  the 
burdens  of  government  as  much  as 
possible  upon  other  shoulders  than 
his  own.  That  new  office  he  had  in- 
tended for  the  Chief -Justice,  who  had 
been  acting  the  part  of  it  without  the 
title.  But  when  De  Lancey  turned 
against  him  he  thought  at  once  of 
Colden  for  the  position  and  urged  his 
name.  At  the  same  time  he  argued  that  the  commission  as  Chief-Jus- 
tice should  be  taken  away  from  De  Lancey.  intending  thus  to  humble 
his  enemy  in  a  double  way;  for  even  if  the  commission  were  not  re- 
voked. Colden.  as  Lieutenant-*  Governor,  would  considerably  reduce  1  >e 
Lancey's  importance  in  the  Colony.  It  must  be  said  that  the  result  of 
these  machinations  bore  rather  hard  on  the  poor  harassed  Governor. 
De  Lancey  was  a  man  of  powerful  connections.  A  private  tutor  of  his 
while  at  the  University  was  now  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Captain 
(later  Admiral  Sit-  Peter)  Warren  was  the  husband  of  one  of  his  sis- 
ters. These  men  had  a  greater  influence  at  court  than  Clinton.  Hence 
the  commission  of  Chief -Justice  was  not  taken  away  from  He  Lancey; 
and  while  Clinton's  desire  to  create  the  position  of  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor was  granted,  it  was  not  Colden  who  received  the  appointment, 
but  again  De  Lancey.  The  only  way  in  which  Clinton  managed  to  re- 
lieve this  humiliating  situation  was  to  indulge  in  1  he  somewhat  petty 
spite  of  withholding  the  commission.    It  arrived  in  1717,  but  not 


ADMIRAL  WARREN  S  HOUSE  AT 
GREENWICH. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


145 


until  his  successor  had  actually  Landed  in  New  York,  in  October,  1753, 
did  he  hand  it  over  to  the  appointee. 

In  the  midst  of  these  conflicts  of  a  political  character,  imbittering 
the  leading  participants  quite  sufficiently,  events  were  occurring  in 
other  directions  which  brought  in  more  of  a  personal  element  than 
was  already  at  hand.  Oliver  Do  Lancey,  a  brother  of  the  Chief-Jus- 
tice, was  somewhat  of  a  roisterer  and  man  about  town,  fond  of  race- 
horses and  a  habitue  of  taverns.  In  the  summer  of  1741)  he  got  into 
an  altercation  in  a  tavern  with  a  Dr.  Calhoun,  in  which  knives  were 
drawn,  and  Oliver  stabbed  the  doctor,  as  Clinton  wrote  to  the  Lords 
ofTrade.  How  could  the  offender  be  brought  toq'ustice  in  a  court  over 
which  his  brother  presided?  There  was  no  lawyer  of  ability  enough 
to  cope  with  the  .Justice.  Attorney-General  Bradley,  of  the  Zenger 
trial  days,  was  now  old  and  feeble.  It  was  Clinton's  desire,  therefore, 
to  remove  him,  and  put  in  his  place  William  Smith,  whom  De  Lancey 
had  disbarred  in  the  course  of  the  same  trial,  whereby  we  observe  how 
completely  these  men  had  shifted  their  political  affiliations.  The  next 
summer,  17.*>0.  a  relative  of  the  Governor's  made  himself  obnox- 
ious to  the  laws  of  peace  and  good  order.  There  was  a  man-of-war 
lying  off  the  city,  in  the  channel  separating  it  from  Governor's  Island. 
It  was  the  "Greyhound."  commanded  by  Captain  Robert  Roddam, 
who  had  married  Clinton's  daughter.  One  Colonel  Ricketts,  with  wife 
and  family  and  servants,  was  on  his  way  in  a  sailboat  from  the  city 
to  Elizabethtown,  carrying  a  flag.  It  had  come  to  the  ears  of  the  lieu- 
tenant in  charge  on  the  "  Greyhound  "  thai  this  Ricketts  had  boasted 
that  he  would  not  observe  the  rule  requiring  passing  craft  to  salute 
the  flag  of  a  man-of-war  by  lowering  their  colors.  Captain  Roddam 
being  ashore,  the  lieutenant  acted  on  his  own  responsibility  when  he 
failed  to  see  the  regulation  followed  by  the  passing  sloop.  lie  first 
sent  a  shot  across  its  bows,  and  when  even  yet  the  Colonel  remained 
obstinate,  the  command  was  given  to  fire  directly  into  the  little  craft. 
It  crashed  through  the  sail  and  struck  a  servant  girl.  Returning  at 
once  to  shore,  the  woman  expired  almost  before  landing.  The  whole 
city  was  in  an  uproar.  Captain  Roddam  placed  the  lieutenant  under 
arrest,  and  sent  the  gunner  ashore.  lie  was  arrested  by  Chief-Justice 
De  Lancey's  directions,  and  as  the  provincial  courts  had  no  right  to 
try  a  man-of-war's  man.  which  was  reserved  to  the  admiralty  courts 
in  England,  and  as,  in  spite  of  this,  the  trial  went  on,  this  action  be- 
came the  basis  of  another  complaint  against  the  Chief-Justice.  Clin- 
ton inquired  if  his  usurpation  of  the  powers  of  an  admiralty  judge 
would  not  invalidate  his  commission  as  Chief-Justice,  hoping  thus  to 
be  rid  of  him. 

A  considerable  pari  of  Clinton's  administration  was  contemporane- 
ous with  the  War  of  the  Austrian  succession  in  Europe,  terminated 
by  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  174S.  Such  wars  in  Europe,  in- 
volving France  and  England,  carrying  with  them  also,  both  in  1715 


14C> 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


;iikI  174."),  attempts  on  the  part  of  Franco  t<>  restore  James  II. 's  de- 
scendants to  the  t  hrone  of  England, — brought  down  upon  t  ho  colonics 
the  French  of  Canada  and  their  Indian  allies.  The  host  defense 
against  these  assailants  was  the  Federation  of  Five  Nations  in  West 
era  New  York.  Frequently  did  Governors  leave  their  comfortable 
quarters  in  the  fori  at  New  York  to  travel  into  the  wilderness  about 
the  Mohawk  River  to  hold  pow-wows  with  the  savages,  in  order  by 
all  means  to  retain  and  cement  the  alliance  wit  h  t  his  powerful  league. 
Clinton  had  had  his  share  of  these  politic  efforts.  Hut  in  dune.  IT-"*:', 
there  was  a  variation  in  the  program.  A  conference  was  appointed 
to  be  held  in  New  York.  Thither  came  Hendricks,  one  of  the  five 
"  Kings  '*  who  had  been  taken  over  to  England  by  Philip  Schuyler,  of 
Albany,  in  1711).  Other  chiefs  attended  him,  and  the  usual  inter- 
change of  presents  and  pledges  took  place.  It  was  just  as  well  that 
the  Indians  should  obtain  some  idea  of  the  strength  and  stability  of 
the  colony,  from  a  view  of  the  city  by  the  sea  with  its  handsome 
houses  and  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants. 

The  history  of  t  hat  contest  for  prerogal  ive  be!  ween  <  Jovernors  and 
assemblies  in  New  York,  which  prepared  the  way  for  revolution  and 
independence,  has  in  it  one  tragic  incident  which  deserves  more  em- 
phasis than  it  usually  obtains  in  general  histories.  Governor  Sir 
Danvers  <  >sborn  came  to  relieve  Clinton  of  his  onerous  duties  in  17.Y.!. 
He  arrived  in  the  Hay  on  Saturday,  October  6.  The  next  day.  Sunday, 
the  7th,  he  landed  at  the  foot  of  Whitehall  Street.  Clinton  was  away 
at  his  country-seal  at  Flushing.  L  [.,  hut  the  Provincial  Council  met 
him,  and  a  bampiot  was  given  him.  As  the  mansion  in  the  fori  was 
undergoing  repairs,  .Mr.  Joseph  Murray,  of  the  Council,  invited  him 
to  his  elegant  home  on  Broadway.  Murray  had  married  one  of  Gov- 
ernor Cosby 's  daughters,  a  niece  of  the  Earl  of  Halifax,  and  as  Sir 
Danvers's  deceased  wife  was  also  a  relative  of  thai  nobleman,  it  w  as 
but  natural  he  should  be  welcomed  as  a  guest  at  thai  house.  On 
Monday,  October  8,  Clinton  came  into  town,  and  there  was  a  private 
Conference  between  the  two.  On  Tuesday,  the  9th,  Clinton  made  a 
formal  call  on  the  new  Governor  at  his  host's,  and  the  freedom  of  the 
city  was  presented  to  him.  On  Wednesday,  October  LO,  L753,  oc- 
curred the  ceremonies  of  inauguration.  A  procession  was  formed 
which  marched  from  the  mansion  in  the  fori  up  Broadway  and  dow  n 
Wall  Street  to  the  City  Ball.  The  crowds  thai  lined  the  streets  gave 
vent  to  their  enthusiasm  at  sight  of  a  new  Governor,  but  they  could 
not  refrain  from  coarse,  ill-natured  expressions  againsl  the  retiring 
incumbent.  This  feature  of  the  proceedings  seemed  to  depress  Os- 
born  very  much;  he  said  that  he  fully  expected  to  have  the  tide  of 
favor  turn  against  him  in  the  same  way.  On  Thursday,  the  Llth,  he 
received  an  address  from  the  city  corporation,  in  which  was  uttered 
the  hope  thai  the  Governor  would  be  as  "  averse  from  countenancing 
as  we  from  brooking  anv  infringements  of  our  inestimable  liberties." 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


117 


These  words  jarred  upon  (he  sensitive  ears  of  Sir  Danvers.  lie  knew 
t  liat  his  instructions  with  redoubled  emphasis  charged  him  to  demand 
what  had  hitherto  been  vainly  urged  by  his  predecessors, — to  sup- 
press or  curtail  the  liberties  which  the  Assembly  had  been  quietly 
arrogating  to  themselves.  After  the  corporation  had  departed,  lie 
asked  one  of  the  Royal  Council  how  the  presentation  of  those  instruc- 
tions would  be  responded  to.  It  was  plainly  told  him  that  not  an  iota 
would  the  Assembly  yield  in  the  way  of  voting  money  in  annual 
grants  for  specified  purposes,  or  even  in  voting  salaries  to  officials  by 
name,  thereby  wielding  practically  the  appointing  power.  This  an- 
swer seemed  to  overwhelm  him  with  gloonVand  dismay.  "What 
then."  he  exclaimed,  "am  1  sent  here  for?"  That  same  evening 
(Thursday,  11th)  there  was  no  public  function,  and  Osborn  dined 
quietly  at  his  friend's  home.  His  depression  of  spirits  during  and 
after  the  meal  was  so  alarming  thai  Mr.  Murray  sent  for  the  best  phy- 
sician in  town,  a  Dr.  Magi  aw.  The  Governor  retired  early  to  his  room, 
ordering  some  broth  to  be  brought  up  to  him.  Early  on  Friday  morn- 
ing, October  12,  the  body  of  the  unhappy  man  was  found  suspended 
by  a  handkerchief  from  a 
picket  in  the  fence  of  Mr.  Mur- 
ray's garden.  I  lis  reason  had 
once  before  been  upset  by  grief 
at  the  death  of  his  wife.  The 
hopelessness  of  the  political 
situation  that  so  early  opened 
before  him  had  again  unset- 
tled his  mind,  and  death  by  his 
own  hand  was  the  startling  re- 
sult. Nothing  more  vividly 
illustrates  the  determination  of  the  representatives  of  the  colonists  to 
assert  their  rights  and  liberties  against  t  he  repress]  ve  measures  of  t  he 
British  Crown.  If  the  Royal  Georges  were  obstinate  in  asserting  their 
prerogatives  over  England  and  the  colonies,  their  obstinacy  found  a 
match  in  that  of  their  subjects  across  the  Atlantic;  for  fifty  years  of 
continuous  exercise  of  their  prerogatives  had  made  them  invincible 
in  the  purpose  of  maintaining  them.  It  was  a  pity  it  drove  Sir  Dan- 
vers to  suicide;  but  his  act  was  a  splendid  testimony  to  the  immovable 
resolution  of  the  colonists  to  be  free  and  independent. 

It  was  fortunate  that  Clinton  had  finally  yielded  to  necessity  and 
had  handed  his  commission  as  Lieutenant-Governor  to  De  Lancey 
upon  the  arrival  of  his  successor,  so  that  there  was  no  confusion  re- 
garding the  succession  as  Chief  Magistrate  added  to  the  consterna- 
tion caused  by  Osborn's  unhappy  end.  For  about  two  years  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor exercised  the  functions  of  this  office,  the  first  of  the 
colonists,  and  a  native  of  the  province  besides,  to  be  thus  recognized 
and  kept  in  the  place  by  the  authorities  at  home.   His  position  was  a 


148 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


peculiar  one.  yel  favorable  to  harmony  between  himself  ;in<l  the  As- 
sembly. Having  been  so  strenuous  in  his  opposition  to  <  rovernor  Clin- 
ton's attempts  to  carry  into  effect  liis  instructions,  it  would  seem  as 
if  lie  were  brought  into  an  awkward  dilemma,  forced  as  he  was  to 
carry  out  tin-  similar  and  even  more  urgent  instructions  to  Osborn. 
Bu1  t  he  Assembly  knew  lie  acted  as  1  he  mere  channel  of  t  hese  inst  ruc- 
tions, and  in  an  official  w  ay.  As  he  w  as  known  to  be  in  entire  sympa- 
thy with  their  position  upon  the  animal  grants  and  salaries,  they 
were  little  afraid  to  yield  a  point  now  and  then  on  these  questions, 
having  entire  confidence  that  the  Lieutenant-Governor  would  carry 
out  their  intentions  in  their  own  spirit.  The  appointment  of  Sir 
Charles  Hardy  as  Governor  in  17.V)  did  not  cause  any  serious  inter- 
ruption to  De  Lancey's  management  of  affairs.  The  new  incumbent 
w  as  so  thorough  a  sailor  t  hat  he  wanted  to  be  nothing  else.  From  the 
first  days  of  his  arrival  at  his  post  he  began  to  importune  the  authori- 
ties at  home  to  send  him  on  some  naval  expedition,  and  from  the  first 
he  was  only  too  glad  to  leave  the  duties  of  administration  to  De  Lan- 
cey's  capable  and  willing  hands.  In  1 7.~>7  Hardy's  wish  was  gratified; 
he  was  made  Rear  Admiral  of  the  Blue,  and  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
was  again  left  the  sole  responsible  head  of  the  province.  1c  he 
was  still  acting  in  this  capacity,  in  1700,  he  was  suddenly  stricken  by 
apoplexy  ami  died  in  a  few  hours,  whereupon  Clinton's  wish  was  ful- 
filled at  last,  and  Dr.  Golden  assumed  the  government.  He  did  so  at 
first  as  President  of  the  Council,  like  Rip  Van  Dam  nearly  thirty 
years  before;  but  a  year  later,  in  17(51,  the  commission  of  Lieutenant- 
( rovernor  was  made  out  for  him.  1  [e  was  then  sevontv-1  wo  years  old, 
but  for  fifteen  years  longer  he  bore  with  undiminished  powers  the 
burdens  of  office,  occasionally  giving  place  to  Governors  who  <;,mr 
and  went  with  bewildering  frequency,  so  that  most  of  the  time  the 
power  w  as  practically  in  his  hands. 

The  "half  century  of  conflict'"  between  France  and  England  in 
America,— which  so  aptly  summarizes  the  occasional  but  frequent 
and  more  or  less  systematic  attacks  upon  the  English  colonies  by  the 
French  in  Canada  during  the  former  half  of  the  18th  century, — had  its 
culmination  at  last,  after  fifty  years  of  desultory  warfare,  in  the 
"French  and  Indian  War."  lasting  seven  or  more  years.  It  would 
be  impossible,  under  any  circumstances,  to  avoid  mention  in  a  history 
of  our  city  of  a  Avar  which  swept  over  t  he  whole  of  t  he  colonial  empire 
on  the  Atlantic  coast,  engaging  the  attention  and  demanding  the 
parti  creation  of  the  people  of  every  province.  "Rut  aside  from  this 
general  interest.  New  York  came  to  be  specially  concerned  in  its  con- 
duct in  many  particulars.  The  province  itself,  by  the  very  conforma- 
tion of  nature,  was  of  necessity  the  center  of  operations  against  the 
foe.  After  Rra (block's  expedition  had  come  to  utter  ruin  in  its  march 
toward  Pittsburg  in  July,  17">,  still  more  was  all  effort  concentrated 
here.    A  highway  to  Canada  was  laid  by  nature  along  the  banks  of 


HISTORY   OF  Till'.  (iKKATKR   X  K\Y  YORK. 


149 


tlie  Hudson,  over  the  waters  or  along  the  shores  of  Lakes  George 
and  Champlain;  and  this  plan  of  campaign  always  made  New  York 
City  the  base  of  military  operations.  General  Lord  Loudoun  came 
to  the  city,  in  June,  1750.  lie  had  been  appointed  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  British  armies  in  America,  the  union  of  ail  the  forces  un- 
der one  head  being  intended  to  consolidate  the  several  colonies 
for  more  effective  defense.  The  title  was  bigger  than  the  man. 
In  New  York  he  proved  himself  a,  bully  and  blusterer,  such  as  cow- 
ards and  incapables  are  apt  to  be.  He  had  sent  arrogant  commands 
ahead  to  the  corporation  that  they  must  find  quarters  for  his  soldiers 
in  the  people's  homes.  The  forced  quartering  of  soldiers  upon  a  popu- 
lation is  not  usually  a  measure  adopted  in  a  friendly  country.  The 
authorities  built  hasty  barracks  along  the  line  of  the  present  Cham- 
bers Street,  well  out  into  the  country,  just  beyond  the  '•  Fields"  or 
"  Commons  "  (later  City  Hall  Park).  There  the  men  of  the  rank  and 
tile  could  have  their  quarters,  but  for  the  officers  no  provision  was 
made.  Loudoun  demanded  that  free  quarters  be  instantly  given  to 
officers  also,  and  threatened  to  bring  all  his  ten  thousand  troops  to 
New  York  and  quarter  them  upon  the  inhabitants  if  the  city  officers 
refused  the  demand.  Governor  Hardy  supported  the  Generalissimo; 
the  corporation  hesitated.  The  citizens,  however,  with  Lieutenant 
Governor  He  Lancey  at  their  head,  stood  out.  for  their  rights,  and 
flatly  refused  to  obey  the  insulting  and  belligerent  behest.  A  com- 
promise was  finally  effected.  It  was  arranged  that  the  officers'  lodg- 
ing and  board  should  be  paid,  and  Mayor  Cruger  started  a  private 
subscription  among  the  wealthier  citizens  to  meet  the  expense.  But 
the  exasperation  caused  by  the  incident  put  the  people  of  the  city  into 
an  excellent  frame  of  mind  for  the  pending  revolution.  Nevertheless, 
whatever  might  be  the  objection  to  giving  them  free  quarters,  New 
York  was  the  place  that  naturally  suggested  itself  for  the  landing  of 
the  troops,  and  for  the  concentration  of  the  naval  forces  sent  from 
England.  De  Lancey,  with  an  eye  to  the  commercial  benefit  as  well, 
pointed  out  to  the  British  ministry  the  advantageous  location  of  the 
city  for  "  a  general  magazine  of  arms  and  military  stores,"  and  for  the 
source  of  supplies  for  the  commissary  department.  This  was  too  ob- 
vious to  be  gainsaid.  Hence,  whatever  of  that  nature  was  transmitted 
to  America  w  as  ordered  to  "  be  lodged  in  a  storehouse  at  New  York, 
subject  to  the  controul  and  direction  "  of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  or 
of  the  Governor  or  Commander  of  New  York.  This  gave  immense 
stimulus  to  business;  trade  in  arms  and  in  farm  products,  vegetables, 
horses,  cattle,  increasing,  of  course,  very  greatly.  In  connection  with 
the  most  famous  episode  of  the  French  and  Indian  war — the  victory 
by  \Yolfe  over  Montcalm  on  the  plains  of  Abraham,  and  the  taking  of 
Quebec  in  September,  1759 — the  plan  of  campaign,  as  formerly,  in- 
cluded a  movement  up  toward  the  St.  Lawrence  from  New  York,  and 
in  conducting  it  the  Commander-in-Chief,  General  Amherst, — as  em- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER   X  IAV  YORK. 


cient  as  his  predecessor  was  incapable,  and  thai  is  saying  much,— 
began  and  ended  bis  operations  a1  New  5fork  City.  When  the  task  of 
the  Conquest  of  Canada  w  as  finally  completed  by  the  taking  of  .Mon- 
treal, just  a  year  after  Quebec,  in  September,  1700,  and  Amherst  re- 
turned to  New  York,  the  importance  of  the  achievement  called  forth 
a  cordial  and  eulogistic  address  from  the  city  corporation.  In  tins, 
while  they  dilated  courteously  upon  the  glory  won  by  the  Major-Gen- 
eral for  himself  and  his  country,  they  particularly  emphasized  the 
advantages  secured  for  the  colonies  by  the  removal  from  the  north  of 
the  ever-threatening  danger  of  invasion  and  massacre.  "  The  numer- 
ous settlements."  they  said.  "  abandoned  to  tile  relentless  fury  of  an 
insatiable  foe,  were  soon  reduced  to  dismal  and  undistinguishable 
ruin.  Husbandry  felt  the  fatal  effects  of  such  a  waste  of  country,  and 
this  city,  famous  for  its  commerce,  beheld  and  wept  the  diminution  of 
its  staple.  .  .  .  But  Canada  is  no  more.  The  peasant  may  return 
in  security  to  his  fields;  husbandry  will  soon  revive;  the  face  of  nature 
smile  with  the  blessings  of  peace,  and  this  flourishing  city  in  the 
plenty  of  its  markets.*'  This  address  accompanied  t  he  presentation  of 
the  freedom  of  the  city  in  a  gold  box,  and  was  graciously  responded 
to  by  General  Amherst,  it  being  his  "  most  hearty  wish  that  this  city 
may  reap  all  the  advantages  it  can  desire  from  this  conquest,  and  that 
it  may  prosper  and  flourish  to  the  latest  time."  On  Wednesday.  No- 
vember 26,  1700,  a  public  dinner  was  tendered  the  Commander-in- 
Chief,  and  the  whole  city  put  itself  in  gala  attire,  and  by  booming 
cannons  and  flying  flags  and  illuminations  at  night,  gave  expression 
to  its  joy  and  gratitude  for  the  fortunate  termination  of  so  prolonged 
and  terrible  a  Avar. 

Meanwhile  this  Avar,  as  already  seen,  had  but  served  to  point  out 
the  fact  that  New  York  was  made  by  nature  and  Providence  to  be  t  lu 
colonial  capital.  Troops  and  generals  seemed  there  to  concentrate, 
and  expeditions  to  emanate  thence,  as  by  a  common  confession  of  its 
fitness  to  be  a  center.  In  the  early  days  of  Clinton's  administration 
Stephen  Bayard,  a  son  of  Nicholas  Bayard,  was  .Mayor  of  the  city, 
lie  held  the  position  for  three  successive  years.  Then  followed  two 
long  terms,  one  of  nine  years  from  1747  to  1756,  with  Mayor  Edward 
Holland  in  the  (  hair;  and  one  of  eight  years,  with  John  Cruger,  Jr., 
the  son  of  the  John  Cruger  who  retired  from  the  position  in  1743.  It 
was  a  little  remarkable  that  Mr.  Holland  should  have  retained  the 
position  so  long.  He  owed  the  appointment  by  Clinton  to  his  friend- 
ship for  that  Governor,  by  reason  of  which  he  had  suffered  a  bit  of 
political  persecution.  In  174.">  he  had  been  elected  a  member  of  the 
Provincial  Assembly  for  Schenectady,  although  a  resident  of  New 
York  City.  Perhaps  to  avoid  a  precedent  like  this,  of  electing  men 
non-resident  in  the  counties  to  be  represented,  but  mainly  because  he 
was  an  adherent  of  Clinton's,  he  was  refused  admission  to  his  seal. 
Yet  De  Lancey  continued  him  in  the  Mayoralty,  which  he  occupied  till 


152 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


his  death  in  17.*>(>.  He,  Like  Golden,  may  have  anally  disapproved  of 
Clinton's  course.  Mayor  Cruger  had  to  bear  tla-  brunt  of  displeasure 
from  the  Commander-in-Chief  Loudoun  for  refusing  free  quarters; 
and  he  also  showed  a  spirited  regard  for  the  citizens  under  his  care 
by  imitating  his  father's  resistance  to  the  press  gangs.  When  thev 
proposed  to  conic  ashore  and  capt  are  men  for  unwilling  service  in  the 
navy,  the  corporation  invariably  forbade  it.  But  the  Mayor  could 
not  prevent  the  same  arbitrary  proceedings  far  out  in  the  Bay,  where 
repeatedly  boatloads  of  sailors  from  men-of-war  were  sent  to  board 
merchant  vessels  and  force  men  to  enlist.  In  August,  1760,  a  ship 
arriving  from  Lisbon,  a  gang  was  sent  from  a  British  frigate  to  im- 
press a  number  of  her  sailors.  The  crew,  on  seeing  them  approach, 
seized  captain  and  mates  (possibly  not  without  cordial  consent  on 
their  part)  and  imprisoned  them  in  their  cabin.  The  officers,  through 
the  cabin  windows,  informed  the  press  gang,  whom  the  crew  did  not 
allow  to  board,  that  they  were  prisoners  and  could  do  nothing  in  the 
matter.  Thereupon  tire  was  opened  upon  the  crew,  resulting  in  the 
killing  of  one  man  and  t  he  wounding  of  several. 

Just  before  Cruger  became  Mayor  a  regular  ferry  was  established 
bet  ween  the  city  and  St  at  en  I  si  a  ml.  The  one  previously  in  operation 
does  not  seem  to  have  had  sufficient  business  for  regular  daily  trips. 
J>ut  now  the  island  contained  twenty-three  hundred  inhabitants,  ami 
intercourse  with  the  city  had  become  more  brisk.  Nevertheless,  cross- 
ing the  Hay  was  a  serious  undertaking,  especially  in  unfavorable 
weather;  indeed,  it  was  in  coming  home  from  Staten  Island  after  a 
dinner  at  the  country-seat  of  a  friend  there,  that  -lames  De  Lancey 
caught  a  cold  that  fatally  aggravated  his  chronic  asthma,  and  the 
next  morning  he  was  found  dead  in  a  (hair  in  his  library.  The 
next  year,  L756,  the  beginning  of  .Mayor  Cruger's  term,  was 
made  memorable  by  two  other  events  in  the  history  of  transpor- 
tation. A  line  of  stages  was  started,  advertised  to  run  between 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  in  three  days  only.  In  I7.">:i  or  17:>4 
Solomon  and  dames  Moore  had  begun  to  carry  passengers  per 
stage  from  Burlington  on  the  Delaware  to  Perth  Amboy,  the  re- 
mainder of  the  journey  being  by  water.  But  three  days,  all  per 
stage,  from  Philadelphia  to  New  York,  was  a  transit  uncommonly 
quick.  About  the  same  time  a  packet  service  was  initiated  between 
New  York  and  Falmouth,  England.  Mails  were  carried  for  four 
pennyweights  in  silver  per  letter.  A  census  in  Mayor  Holland's  time, 
in  1.749,  revealed  the  fact  that  the  city  counted  13,294  souls;  in  17."><; 
another  census  brought  the  figure  somewhat  nearer  fourteen  thou- 
sand, but  the  historian  Smith  for  some  reason  discredits  that  compu- 
tation, and  puts  the  population  at  the  round  number.  L5,000.  The 
city's  revenue  on  the  same  contemporary  authority  amounted  to 
ti'.ooo.  The  town  militia  had  grown  to  a  body  of  twenty-three  hun- 
dred men;  and  there  were  one  thousand  stands  of  arms  held  in  re- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


153 


serve  for  arming  the  poor  or  the  sailors  in  case  of  an  emergency,  at 
the  City  Hall. 

While  the  city  had  been  increasing  in  population,  the  commercial 
statistics  do  not  furnish  as  favorable  a  record  during  t  he  t  wo  decades 
ending  1760;  for  while  the  figures  indicating  imports  and  exports  are 
larger  than  they  were  during  the  three  previous  decades,  the  balance 
of  trade  is  against,  instead  of  for,  New  York,  the  exports  being  less 
than  the  imports.  Thus  from  1740  to  1750  the  imports  amounted  to 
£81 2, (ill;  the  exports  to£708,943,  while  from  1750  to  1 700  t  he  disparity 
between  the  two  amounts  was  still  larger,  and  again  on  the  wrong 
side  of  the  sheet — imports  being  £1,577,419,  and**exports;6802,691.  This 
state  of  affairs  was  doubtless  due  to  the  wars;  there  would  be  less 
opportunity  for  manufactures  or  products  to  be  dispensed  to  a  for- 
eign market.  There  would  be  call  for  more  consumption  at  home,  and 
larger  quantities  of  supplies  would  be  brought  in  from  abroad.  As 
these  would  pass  mainly  through  the  hands  of  the  New  York  mer- 
chants, there  need  be  no  ques- 
tion but  that  commercial  pros- 
perity at  tended  the  conduct  of 
the  war,  to  counteract  its 
drain  upon  tin1  pockets  of  the 
colonists.  Smith  gives  as  a 
reason  for  the  little  manufact- 
uring done  in  the  colony  that 
there  was  too  much  land  in 
proportion  to  the  small  num- 
ber of  people.  He  states  that 
about  this  time  felt  was  largely 
manufactured  in  the  city,  and 
that  felt  hats  were  exported  in 
large  numbers  to  the  West  Indies.  This  was  a.  state  of  things  which 
the  manufacturers  at  home  could  not  permit  to  continue,  and  pretty 
soou  the  new  article  was  placed  upon  the  list  of  forbidden  exports  by 
Parliament.  Between  December  1),  1755,  and  February  23,  175(5,  no 
less  than  12,528  hogsheads  of  flaxseed  were  shipped  to  Ireland  to  be 
converted  into  linen.  The  sowing  of  flax  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city 
had  been  somewhat  of  an  experiment,  but  the  success  of  it  is  evinced 
clearly  by  this  statement.  Undressed  skins  were  sent  to  Holland,  of 
course  in  English  bottoms,  and  a  trade  in  duck  was  kept  up  with 
Holland  and  Hamburg  both.  About  the  year  1761  it  was  estimated 
that  for  some  time  previous  one  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
dry-goods  had  been  imported  into  the  city  and  province  from  England 
peryear.  There  was  now  a  Royal  Exchange,  somewhat  in  keeping  with 
these  portentous  transactions.  It  stood  not  far  from  the  spot  where 
merchants  were  wont  to  meet,  the  bridge  over  the  canal  in  Broad 
Street,  but  at  the  foot  of  Broad  now.  hard  bv  the  exeat  dock  or  basin 


ROYAL  EXCHANGE,  1752. 


l.vi 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


that  ran  oul  into  the  Bast  River,  li  was  built  in  17.">2,  a  substantial 
brick  structure,  two  stories  high,  with  a  pointed  roof,  or,  to  be  pre- 
cise, a  "  hip  "  roof.  A  cupola  rose  from  the  center  of  the  ridge  whence 
i  lie  bel]  rung  to  call  t  he  merchants  together,  as  is  done  in  I  Mitch  cities 
to  this  day.  The  lower  story  w  as  open  to  the  view,  being  merely  brick 
arches  to  hold  up  the  rest  of  the  building.  Here  business  was  done, 
without  much  shelter  from  cither  cold  or  wet.  The  markets  affected 
by  transactions  in  this  exchange  were  not  so  various  as  at  present, 
w  hen  almost  every  kind  of  merchandise  has  its  own  exchange,  and 
there  is  a  Stock  Exchange  besides.  It  was  mainly  a  "  Produce  Ex- 
change," like  t  hat  which  almost  overshadows  the  ancient  spot.  Some 
[trices  of  provisions  in  HoT  are  preserved:  beet'  was  quoted  at  4  l-'2 
pence  per  pound;  pork  at  5  L-2  pence;  veal  at  from  4  1-2  to  6  peace. 
Butter  was  lf>  pence  per  pound,  and  milk  sold  lor  "  six  coppers  the 
quart."  Bread  was  held  at  four  pence  per  loaf  of  one  pound.  Vege- 
tables were  plentiful  and  delicious,  thanks  to  the  world-renowned 
skill  of  the  Dutch  farmers,  and  the  taste  of  the  Dutch  families,  which 
had  passed  over  to  the  English  in  the  city.  Potatoes,  once  grown  iu 
city  gardens  lor  their  flowers,  soon  became  valued  as  a  food.  In  L748 
a  specimen  was  shown  in  the  New  York  market  weighing  7  \-- 
pounds.  Asparagus  was  brought  from  Coney  Island  in  stalks  white 
as  snow,  veined  with  delicate  pink,  and  topped  with  bright  green 
heads.  Before  the  Revolution  several  large  sugar  houses  had  been 
built  in  t  he  city.  The  Bayard's  stood  in  Wall  St  reet.  in  a  line  with  the 
City  Mall  and  the  Presbyterian  Church,  perhaps  about  where  the 
.Manhattan  and  .Merchants'  Bank  building  is  now.  The  Livingston's 
was  located  in  Crown  (Liberty)  Street,  near  the  Nassau  Street 
( !hurch  ;  Van  <  \>rt  landt's  to  the  nort  h  west  of  Trinity,  about  where  the 
rear  of  "Trinity  Building"  stands  on  Trinity  Place.  The  wars 
with  France  stimulated  young  men  of  spirit  again,  as  formerly,  to 
enter  upon  perilous,  but  profitable,  privateering  enterprises,  mer- 
chants in  the  city  lilting  out  t  lie  ships.  Iu  17t'»l  a  petition  was  sent 
in  t o  |  he  Assembly  asking  1  hat  a  light  house  be  set  up  on  Sandy  I  look. 
Il  being  granted,  a  lottery  furnished  the  funds,  but  qoI  till  17l>:>  did 
ilsliglil  tlash  forth  upon  the  sea. 

As  l  he  years  creep  on  toward  t  he  middle  of  t  he  cent  ury  and  beyond 
to  the  Revolution,  we  behold  spire  after  spire  rising  from  amid  the 
lowly  dwellings  of  the  colonial  city.  Every  steeple  then  told  against 
the  clear  blue  sky,  none  id'  them  being  buried,  as  are  even  the  tallest 
now,  among  office  buildings  that  lower  in  all  their  huge  bulk  above 
their  highest  tapering  point.  Fortunately  one  id'  these  early  struc- 
tures still  stands  amid  its  modern  surroundings,  to  bring  back  to  our 
imagination  t  he  appearance  of  all  i  he  rest,  for  we  Deed  but  look  at  St. 
Paul's  on  Broadway  to  behold  what  w  as  i  he  appearance  of  its  ancient 
sister  churches.  Ii  was  built  in  L765.  Passing  along  the  line  of 
Broadway  the  Trinity  of  1 7:!  7.  and  the  Lu  t  heran  Churcb  on  i  he  corner 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


r>f) 


of  Rector  Street,  would  be  encountered.  Going  down  the  liill  from 
Broadway  along  Exchange  Place,  in  the  latter  streel  on  the  other  side 
of  Broad,  still  stood  the  "Garden  Street"  Reformed  Church,  long 
past  its  half-century,  therefore  more  frequently  called  the  Old  Church 
now,  with  reference  to  the  one  on  Nassau  Street  and,  again,  desig- 
nated as  the  South  Church,  when,  in  L769,  the  Dutch  congregation 
built  their  third  and  still  handsomer  North  Church  on  Fulton  Street, 
corner  of  William,  which  stood  intact  until  1869.  The  French  Church, 
altered  and  improved  since  1704.  held  its  old  place  in  King  (Tine) 
Street.  It  received  a  near  neighbor  in  Little  Queen  (Cedar)  Street  in 
litis,  when  the  Scotch  Presbyterians,  aspiring*  to  something  more 
blue  than  those  in  Wall  Street  could  exhibit,  built  a  church  for  I  hem- 
selves  there,  excluding  carefully  v 
the  vain  trumpery  of  a  church 
Organ.  The  Wall  Street  congrega- 
tion showed  no  signs  of  suffering 
from  this  desertion.  In  1768  it  had 
become  so  numerous  as  to  need  a 
new  church,  and  so  prosperous  as  to 
be  able  to  build  one.  This  was 
done  "  away  up  town."  in  the 
"  Fields,"  or  on  the  block  now  occu- 
pied by  the  Times  and  Potter  build- 
ings, the  triangle  between  Nassau 
and  Beekman  streets  and  Park  Row. 
It  was  familiarly  called  the  Brick 
Presbyterian  Church,  a  name  now 
borne  by  its  successor  on  Fifth  Ave- 
nue and  Thirty-seventh  Street.  It 
was  the  farthest  "  up  town  "  church 
of  that  day.  Next  farthest  was  the 
St.  George's  Episcopal  chapel  on 
Beekman  Street,  corner  of  Cliff,  erected  in  1752;  and  finally  the  three 
Dutch  churches  were  nobly  matched  by  three  Episcopal  ones,  w  hen, 
in  ITC)."),  St.  Paul's  was  erected  on  the  spot  it  now  occupies.  All  the 
others  have  disappeared:  St.  Paul's  alone  abides,  for  Trinity's  vastly 
altered  form  brings  up  no  memories  of  the  days  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. It  may  be  useful,  if  Ave  would  vividly  set  before  our  minds  the 
city  as  it  was  during  those  momentous  times,  to  fix  firmly  in  thought 
and  picture  to  our  imagination  the  number,  form,  and  location  of 
these  churches.  Other  municipal  conditions — the  city's  dimensions, 
appearance,  topography,  its  distribution  of  streets  and  population- 
will  then  the  more  readily  rehabilitate  themselves. 

We  have,  in  speaking  of  the  churches  of  the  town,  somewhat  ex- 
ceeded the  limit  of  years  we  had  set  to  ourselves  for  consideration  in 
this  chapter.    But  all  through  the  period  herein  embraced  a  noted 


NORTH  DUTCH  CHURCH  ON  FULTON 
STREET,  1769. 


156 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


religious  movement  swept  over  America  which  had  a  decided  effect 
upon  church  life  in  the  city  as  elsewhere.  Between  1740  and  1770  the 
Rex.  George  Whitefield  visited  the  American  colonies  seven  times, 
addressing  audiences  in  every  important  city  from  Boston  to  Charles- 
ton. Everywhere  he  aroused  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  People  were 
awakened  to  a  Livelier  interest  in  religion  as  an  emotion  and  a  life, 
rather  than  a  profession  by  mental  consent  to  certain  theological 
tenets  taught  in  the  schools  and  recited  in  the  confirmation  class, 
lie  arraigned  the  dead  formalism  of  the  ministry  ;is  well  as  of  the 
people.  Hitter  opposition  was  excited  quite  as  much  as  a  hearty 
assent  given  bo  Ins  just  rebukes,  lint  the  result  was  a  general  convic- 
tion thai  religious  life  and  church-membership  should  be  something 
different  from  what  it  had  ordinarily  been  before— a  thing  more  of 
the  heart  and  conduct  t  han  of  1  he  head.  Hence  t  he  work  of  Whitefield 


Presbyterian  church.  to  come  to  Now  York.  The  Episcopal  min- 
isters refused  to  let  him  speak  in  their 
churches,  although  be  was  in  the  orders  of  the  Church  of  England. 
Bu1  Mr.  Pemberton,  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Wall 
Street,  cordially  gave  him  the  use  of  his  pulpit.  As  the  church 
could  not  accommodate  the  crowds  that  flocked  to  hear  the  famous 
evangelist,  he  addressed  audiences  also  in  the  open  air  "  in  the 
fields"  or  Common.  His  tirst  sermon  was  preached  on  the  morn- 
ing of  Friday,  October  31.  in  the  church.  lie  preac  hed  also  in 
the  evening.  On  Saturday.  November  L,  he  again  preached  twice 
to  increasing  crowds.  Be  had  come  to  New  York  with  misgiv- 
ings, fearing  he  would  have  no  results.  Bui  he  had  DO  cause  to 
be  discouraged.  The  next  day,  Sunday,  lie  pleat  lied  morning  and 
evening.  At  the  second  service  the  peculiar  demonstrations  usually 
attending  his  exhortations  were  apparent  in  full  force.  On  Saturday 


WALL  STREET 


in  America  was  attended  by  results  every- 
where which  have  entitled  it  to  be  desig- 
nated appropriately  as  the  "Great  Awak- 
ening of  1740."  It  is  of  course  of  special 
interest  to  us  to  notice  that  Whitetield  also 
visited  New  York  City.  On  his  tour 
through  the  colonies,  starting  from  New 
England  he  tirst  came  within  the  presenl 
limits  of  our  city  at  East  Chester,  w  here  In- 
addressed  an  audience  of  three  hundred 
people.  At  Kingsbridge  he  preached  from 
t  he  steps  of  a  public  house  to  five  hundred, 
but  with  no  effect  that  could  be  visibly  ap- 
preciated. He  arrived  in  t  be  city  prop<  C  on 
October  :!().  174(1.  and  was  entertained  at 
the  house  of  a  Mr.  Noble,  an  elder  in  the 
Wall  Street  Church,  who  had  invited  him 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


157 


evening,  indeed,  some  people  had  fainted  away;  but  on  Sunday  even- 
ing "  the  whole  congregation  was  alarmed.  Shrieking,  crying,  weep 
ing,  and  wailing  were  to  be  heard  in  every  corner,  men's  hearts  failing 
them  for. fear,  and  many  falling  into  the  arms  of  their  friends."  <Mi 
Monday  Whitefield  again  preached  twice  in  New  York,  but  on  Tues- 
day he  left  to  continue  his  journey  to  Philadelphia  and  the  South. 
He  preached  that  day  on  Staten  Island,  standing  upon  a  wagon,  to  an 
outdoor  audience  of  some  three  or  four  hundred  people.  In  4  74S  he 
was  again  in  the  country  and  possibly  at  New  York;  but  on  his  visit 
in  17li4,  he  writes  that  his  work  here  was  attended  with  even  more 
marked  effect  than  at  the  tirst  visit  just  described. 

Other  than  the  leading  sects  possessed  tine  churches.  New  York 
now,  as  of  old,  had  its  share  of  all  kinds  of  sects;  and  they  existed 
without  molestation.  The  Lutherans  had  two  churches,  one  on  Rec- 
tor, the  other  on  Frankfort  streets;  and  the  Quakers  had  a  meet- 
ing-house on  Crown  (Liberty)  Street.  The  Moravians  also  had  a 
congregation,  with  a  modest  chapel  on  Fair  (Fulton)  Street.  Their 
services  were  in  the  English  language,  and  a  contemporary  says  that 
they  "consisted  principally  of  female  proselytes  from  other  socie- 
ties." The  Baptists  had  a  small  meeting-house  on  Yandereliff  (Cliff) 
Street ;  and  the  Jewish  synagogue  in  Mill  (now  South  William)  Street, 
while  of  no  architectural  pretensions  outside,  was  said  to  be  very 
"  neat  within."  A  curious  instance  of  a  condition  of  affairs  that  has 
now  utterly  passed  away,  and  an  evidence  that  church  and  slate  were 
not  as  yet  severed  in  America,  is  the  record  upon  1  he  <  Jommon  Council 
minutes  of  1 747,  that  four  pounds  be  paid  the  public  printer  to  defray 
the  cost  of  printing  fifty  copies  of  "  An  Essay  on  the  Duties  of  Vestry- 
men." We  note  once  more  that  William  Bradford  was  still  alive  to 
see  to  this  ecclesiastical  job,  for  he  did  not  die  till  five  years  later.  As 
regards  schools  in  1743,  we  find  as  yet  no  buildings  put  up  for  their 
special  accommodation;  and  in  regard  to  their  quality,  we  have  only 
the  most  gloomy  contemporary  testimony:  "The  schools  are  in  the 
lowest  order,  and  the  instructors  want  instruction."  Tn  1748  the  first 
schoolhouse  was  put  up  on  Lector  Street  for  the  Episcopal  children; 
and  in  the  same  year  one  was  built  by  the  Dutch  people  in  Garden 
Street,  opposite  the  church,  containing  also  accommodations  as  a 
residence  for  the  teacher.  Tn  1 74.°>  a  school  had  been  opened  by  the 
Dutch  deacons  in  a  house  in  Cortlandt  Street,  with  Abraham  De 
Lahoy  as  teacher,  presumably  a  sou  and  namesake  of  the  person  who 
taught  school  for  the  Dutch  congregation  in  4 (570.  Free  education 
was  an  established  fact  in  the  city  as  early  as  1740.  The  chorister  of 
the  Middle  Church,  who  was  its  teacher,  had  at  least  twelve  of  his 
scholars  on  the  free  list,  six  in  reading  and  six  in  writing,  for  whom 
he  received  from  the  consistory  a  load  of  wood,  "  half  nut,  half  oak," 
for  each  scholar,  and  £12  40s.  per  annum  in  money. 

A  great  step  forward  in  education  was  taken  in  the  founding  of 


158 


HISTORY  OF  THK  (iKKATKK  NEW  YORK. 


Columbia  College,  a1  first  called  Kind's.  A  hill  passed  the  Assembly 
on  October  22,  174(1.  authorizing  the  raising  of  ;i  fund  of  £2.2.">0  by  lot- 
tery.  Large  gifts  also  came  from  individuals,  anion"-  them  Governor 
Hardy.  Classes  were  not  formed  till  about  1750,  and  in  1753  the  lirst 
President  was  called,  the  Rev.  1  >r.  Samuel  Johnson,  of  Stratford,  Con- 
necticut. He  w  as  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  and  the  charter  called  for 
membership  in  thai  church  as  a  requisite  for  the  position.  This  gave 
great  offense  to  people  of  other  communions,  and  unfortunately 
this  excellent  undertaking  led  to  another  division  of  New  York  City 
into  parties,  headed  in  this  instance  by  the  De  Lancey  family  and 
following  on  the  side  of  the  Episcopalians,  and  by  the  Livingston 
family  and  following  on  the  side  of  the  Presbyterians  and  others.  It 
imbittered  relations  in  politics  for  many  years  thereafter.  The  col- 
lection of  funds  went  on  slow  ly.  Trinity  Church  gave  ground  for  the 
buildings,  comprising  the  block  bounded  by  Murray,  Church,  and 
Barclay  Streets  and  College  Place,  and  here  at  last,  on  August  '2-\. 
17."»<>.  the  cornerstone  was  laid  bv  Governor  Hardy.    Among  the 

early  graduates  of 
the  college  were  such 
names  as  those  of 
John  Jay.  Robert  R. 
Livingston,  and  <  lou- 
verneur  .Morris. 

Another  evidence 
that  New  Fork  peo- 
ple were  alive  to 
some!  hing  more  t  ha  n 
commerce  and  poli- 
tics, is  a  h  orded  by 
the  founding  of  the 
"Society  Library  "  in 
17.~>l.  The  corporation  had  come  into  possession  of  a  library  much 
earlier.  In  I7i)(i  the  Rev.  John  Sharpe,  Lord  Bellomont's  chap- 
lai n-in-t  he-fort .  tun  ing  been  much  worried  by  Lector  Vesey's  con- 
duct toward  him,  left  to  return  to  England,  and  generously 
donated  his  library  to  the  city.  This  was  supplemented  in  1 7l_'s 
by  the  gifi  of  another  clerical  library.  A  Lev.  Mr.  Millington 
had  bequeathed  his  books,  over  sixteen  hundred  in  number,  to  the 
"  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.*'  who  de- 
cided to  bestow  them  upon  the  benighted  town  on  the  shores  of  the 
Hudson.  Thus  the  "  City  Library."  doubly  t  heological,  had  attained 
some  respectable  size,  and  the  corporation  devoted  a  room  in  the  City 
Hall  to  its  proper  preservation.  As  Mr.  Sharpe  was  back  in  the  coun- 
try, he  was  made  custodian:  but  being  well  stricken  in  years  he  did 
not  long  live  to  a  1 1  end  to  t  his  congenial  duty,  and  after  his  death  the 
books  fell  into  sad  neglect,    lu  the  month  of  March,  17."»4,  there  were 


HISTORY  OF  Till'"  GRKATKK   N  KW  YORK. 


L59 


together  al  an  evening  company  the  three  brothers,  Philip,  Roberi  R., 
and  William  Livingston;  with  John  Morin  Seott,  later  to  be  heard 
from;  William  Alexander  (afterward  General  and  Lord  Stirling  of 
the  patriot  army)  and  William  Smith,  Jr.  Thelasl  two  will  be  recog- 
nized as  sons  of  James  Alexander  and  William  Smith,  respect 
ively.  They  determined  to  start  a  movement  to  found  a  library  "  to- 
ward promoting  a  spirit  of  inquiry  among  the  people,  by  a  loan  of 
books  to  non-subscribers."  These  few  young  friends,  four  of  them 
graduates  of  Yale  College,  went  to  work  so  energetically  that  before 
the  end  of  March  six  hundred  pounds  had  been  raised.  Permission 
was  readily  obtained  from  the  Corporation  to  add  the  City  Library  to 
their  own,  and  to  place  the  whole  in  a  room  in  t  he  City  Hall. 

Taking  our  stand — anywhere  between  the  years  174:5  and  L769— 
on  the  heights  above  the  Brooklyn  ferry  we  could  have  taken  in  the 
whole  City  of  New  York  at  one  glance,  from  Peck  Slip  to  the  Battery. 
A  few  scattered  houses  might  have  been  seen  on  the  hills  back  of 
Corlaer's  Hook;  then  in  quick  succession  would  have  been  counted 
the  steeples  of  St.  George,  Brick  Presbyterian,  North  Dutch,  St. 
Paul's,  and  all  the  rest  down  to  the  one  in  Garden  Street.  Here  and 
there  an  elegant  mansion  might  have  been  picked  out — Walton's, 
and  De  Peyster's,  in  Queen  Street;  possibly  I>e  Lancey's  on  Broad- 
way. Generally  the  houses  were  of  modest  elevation,  and  of  no 
very  great  size,  but  all  very  neat.  Most  of  the  blocks  between  the  fori 
and  1  lanover  Square  were  now  solidly  built  np;  east  of  Broadway  this 
feature  was  apparent  as  far  as  Wall  Street,  and  east  of  William 
St  reel  as  far  as  ( 1  olden  Hill,  the  continuation  of  John  Street ;  or  even 
as  far  as  Fair  (Fulton)  Street.  But  west  of  Broadway  the  blocks  were 
Sparsely  beset  all  the  way  from  the  fort  to  Chambers  Street,  and  in 
that  far-away  region  the  streets — Warren,  Murray,  Robinson  (Park 
Place),  Barclay,  and  Yesey — were  scarcely  more  than  laid  out  on 
paper.  In  1756  a  line  of  palisades  extended  from  the  North  River 
to  the  East  River,  just  beyond  Chambers,  running  along  the  hill  that 
sloped  down  toward  the  Collect  Pond  (Tombs  Prison),  and  then  cut- 
ting through  some  of  the  laid-out  streets  on  the  east  side,  leaving  a 
few  clusters  of  dwellings  outside  the  defenses.  Who  could  expect, 
living,  say.  at  Park  Row  and  Pearl  Street,  to  be  included  in  Cue  pro- 
tection of  t  he  city  proper?  It  was  too  unreasonably  far  out  of  town! 
But  within  the  palisades  there  were  several  large  vacant  spaces  even 
in  1756.  For  instance,  the  entire  triangle  bounded  by  Fulton  Street, 
Park  Row,  and  Nassau  Street,  was  quite  innocent  of  habitations.  Sev- 
eral streets  were  now  paved;  Broadway  and  others  beset  with  trees. 
Altoget  her  the  appearance  of  the  town  was  quite  respectable, if  we  are 
to  judge  from  the  enthusiastic  language  of  an  officer  in  the  Royal 
British  navy  writing  home  in  175(1.  "  The  nobleness  of  the  town,"  he 
observed,  "surprised  me  more  than  the  fertile  appearance  of  the 
country.    I  had  no  idea  of  finding  a  place  in  America,  consisting  of 


L60 


HISTORY  OF  THI-:  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


nearly  2,000  houses,  elegantly  built  of  brick,  raised  on  an  eminence, 
and  the  streets  paved  and  spacious,  furnished  with  commodious  keys 
[quays]  and  warehouses,  and  employing  sonic  hundreds  of  vessels  in 
its  foreign  trade  and  fisheries — but  such  is  tins  city  < ha1  a  very  few  in 
England  can  rival.it  in  its  show,  gentility,  and  hospitality." 

Some  particularly  handsome  private  residences  deserve  net  ice 
The  finest  of  all  was  that  built  by  a  merchant  of  the  name  <>f  William 
Walton.  lie  had  acquired  great  wealth  in  the  trade  with  the  Spanish 
(•(denies.  In  1 7:>s  Lieutenant-Governor  Clarke  had  written  of  him  to 
England  that  he  was  "  the  only  person  in  the  place  whom  the  Span- 
iards permit  te  trade  at  SI.  A.ugustine."  His  means  increasing  with 
the  years  he  resolved  to  build  him  a  house  in  keeping  therewith,  rie 
was  living  on  Hanover  Square,  but  he  selected  for  his  new  house  ;i 
spot  further  up  town,  on  a  lull  along  the  line  of  Queen  i  Pearl)  Street. 


for  business.  In  the  New  York  Mirror  of  March  17.  is:>2.  there  is  a 
description  of  its  appearance  as  it  was  then:  "A  brick  edifice 
fifty  feel  in  front  and  three  stories  high,  built  with  Holland 
bricks,  relieved  by  brownstone  water  tables,  lentils,  and  jams. 
The  superb  staircase  in  its  ample  hall,  with  mahogony  hand- 
rails and  banisters,  by  age  as  dark  as  ebony,  would  not  disgrace 
a  nobleman's  palace."  A  lady  who  had  seen  it  illuminated  in  cele- 
bration id'  the  repeal  of  the  Stain])  Act  in  17ti(i,  spoke  of  it  as  having 
•'  five  w  indows  in  front,  a  double-pitched  roof  covered  with  tiles,  and 
a  double  course  of  balustrades  thereon."  The  garden  extended  down 
I  he  hill  as  far  as  t  he  river.  Xo  wonder  some  one  in  17(52  referred  to  it 
as  "  the  nonpareil  of  the  city."  .Mi'.  Walton  lived  in  a  style  suitable 
to  his  dwelling-house,  so  that  t  he  dinners,  the  plate,  the  wines,  were 


THE  WALTON  HOUSE. 


where    now  we 

have  Franklin 
Square,  and  the 
numbers  ^24  to 
328  Pearl  Street 
will  pretty  near- 
ly indicate  the 
precise  location. 
I  fere,  as  late  as 
L867,  a  sign  still 
announced  "  The 
( >ld  W  a  I  ton 
House."  it  being 

then   used   .is  a 

boarding  -  house 
or  hotel  for  sail- 
ors; but  in  L881 
it  w  as  torn  down 
to    make  room 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


161 


quoted  in  the  House  of  Commons,  to  prove  the  wealth  of  the  colonists 
in  an  argument  for  their  taxation.  The  De  Lanceys  also  had  fine 
residences.  Stephen  De  Lancey,  the  founder  of  the  family's  fortune, 
huilt  a  noble  mansion  on  Broad  Street  on  the  cornel-  of  Dock 
(Pearl)  Street.  This  fell  to  Oliver  De  Lancey,  his  sou,  aud  became 
later  the  Frauuces  Tavern.  Stephen  De  Lancey  built  another  large 
house  on  Broadway,  between  the  Trinity  churchyard  and  Cedar 
Street.  This  became  the  property  of  his  son  James,  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  and  still  later  was  transformed  into  the  "City  Hotel." 
Abraham  De  Peyster  had  long  before  this  built  a  broad  mansion  on 
Queen  (Pearl)  Street,  just  opposite  Little  Quee*n  (Cedar)  Street.  It 
was  within  sound,  therefore,  of  that  beautiful  bell  which  he  had 
ordered  cast  at  Amsterdam,  aud  had  donated  to  the  Nassau  Street 
Church;  and  which  still  rings  out  from  the  48th  Street  Collegiate 
( 'hurch  on  Fifth  Avenue. 

It  has  already  been  observed  that  life  in  New  York  was  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  entitle  it  to  be  regarded  as  a  colonial  capital.  From  the 
standpoint  of  the  strictly  conservative  colonist,  who  would  never 
have  had  it  anything  else  but  a  colonial  capital,  it  had  at  this  time 
reached  a  very  ideal  condition.  "  In  the  year  1752  New  York  was  in 
its  happiest  state,"  wrote  a  loyalist  historian  afterward,  deploring 
severance  from  the  mother  country.  To  him  this  was  the  "  Golden 
Age  of  New  York,"  which  could  not  be  improved  upon.  "  The  colony 
was  extending  its  trade,  encouraging  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  culti- 
vating its  lands.  Its  inhabitants  were  daily  increasing  in  riches  and 
wealth  and  opulence.  They  were  at  the  same  time  laborious,  indus- 
trious, and  frugal,  lived  iu  the  most  hospitable  manner,  though  with 
great  economy."  It  was  too  bad  that  all  this  should  have  been  dis- 
turbed by  a  struggle  for  independence,  but  there  are  some  that  do  not 
regret  it  quite  so  much  as  honest  Judge  Thomas  Jones.  Perhaps  one 
reason  that  the  people  could  not  be  kept  contented  with  a  meek  colo- 
nial condition,  in  which  they  might  be  happily  robbed,  and  prosper- 
ously trampled  upon,  was  that  newspapers  were  increasing  among 
them,  for,  of  course,  their  business  is  to  find  fault  with  all  existing 
things.  The  old  New  York  Gazette,  as  already  stated,  was  taken 
in  hand  by  James  Parker  in  1743  and  published  under  the  name  of 
the  New  York  Gazette  and  Weekly  Postboy.  In  a  conflict  of  au- 
thority between  Clinton  and  the  Assembly  in  1747,  James  Parker 
boldly  defied  the  Governor.  But  when  the  Assembly  ordered  the 
arrest  of  him  and  his  partner  in  1750  for  having  criticised  sharply  the 
people  of  some  of  the  upper  counties,  the  two  editors  very  meekly 
apologized  and  retracted  their  statements.  The  New  York  Jour- 
nal held  on  to  life  until  1752,  but  it  must  have  been  somewhat  pre- 
carious, for  in  1751,  in  the  issue  of  February  25,  we  find  an  earnest  ap- 
peal to  the  "country  subscribers"  to  pay  their  arrears.  Some  of 
them   were  behind   upward   of  seven   years.    "  Now,"  continues 


1G2  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

young  Zenger  with  much  pathos,  "  as  I  have  served  them  so  long,  I 
think  ii  is  time,  ay,  high  time,  too,  that  they  give  me  my  outset,  for 
they  may  verily  believe  that  my  very  cloathes  (sic)  are  almost  worn 
out."  lu  1740  the  Evening  Post  was  added  to  the  Dumber  of  the 
city  journals,  aud  died  soon  from  a  "  looseness  in  grammar  and  com- 
plications in  orthography."  In  L7o2,  Hugh  Gaine,  printer  and  book- 
seller at  the  sign  of  the  "Bible  and  Crown,"  in  Hanover  Squar< — 
where  he  sold  theatre  tickets,  as  duly  recorded  in  Cooper's  "  Satans- 
toe  " — added  also  this  other  service  to  the  public  by  starting  a  news- 
paper, which  he  gave  the  airy  title  of  the  Now  York  Mercury.  It 
was  well  conducted  and  won  fame  as  the  best  paper  in  the  col- 
onies, in  17C>:{  the  name  was  (hanged  to  New  York  Gazette  and 
Weekly  Mercury;  it  was  then  inclined  to  be  patriotic,  but  its  poli- 
ties changed  with  1  he  advent  of  the  British  in  town.  Out  of  the  con- 
troversy between  Episcopalian  and  Presbyterian  leaders  anenl  the 
control  of  Columbia  (Kind's)  Colleire.  <rrew  the  establishment  of  a 

periodical  that  was 
somewhat  of  I  he  mil  are 
of  a  magazine.  It  was 
called  t he  I  ml< pendent 
Reflector.  Its  first  issue 
was  dated  November 
30,  L752,  but  its  last 
came  out  as  early  as 
October.  L753.  Its  liter- 
ary standard  was  quite 
in  advance  of  its  eon- 
temporaries,  an<K  it 
counted  among  its  con- 
tributors William  Livingston,  the  Rev.  Aaron  Burr,  Presidenl  of 
Princeton  College,  and  William  Alexander. 

The  sociability  and  hospitality  of  Xew  York  people  are  constantly 
Spoken  of  by  those  whose  words  have  come  down  to  us  from  these 
early  days.  It  was  their  uniform  testimony  that  Xew  York  was  one 
of  the  most  social  places  in  the  world.  Smith,  the  historian,  tells  of 
weekly  clubs  among  the  men.  and  doubtless  it  was  at  one  of  those 
happy,  informal  meetings  in  March,  L 754,  of  which  he  writes,  thai  the 
project  of  the  Society  Library  was  started.  The  ladies,  he  says,  wore 
not  readers;  but  they  wore  extremely  line  housekeepers,  which  he 

is  just  enough  to  ascribe  to  the  Influence  of  Dutch  traditions.   Yei  t he 

ladies  enjoyed  "  conceits  of  music.*'  w  hile  balls  and  receptions,  too, 
wore  not  infrequent.  These  thai  wore  held  at  the  houses  of  the  great, 
were,  id"  course,  exclusive.  Bu1  t  here  wore  also  those  of  a  more  public 
and  promiscuous  sort .  which  wore  held  usually  in  the  large  assembly 
or  reception-rooms,  called  "  bong  Rooms,"  of  the  principal  taverns; 
and  frequently  also  in  the  spacious  hall  in  the  second  story  of  the 


WALTON  HOISK-INTKRIOR. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Royal  Exchange  in  Broad  Street.  It  is  stated  that  dancing  assem- 
blies were  held  once  a  fortnight  during  the  winter  seasons,  Gayeties 
like  these  were  of  course  quite  in  keeping  with  the  city's  character  as 
a  colonial  capital,  and  would  give  the  young  people  from  up  the  river 
all  the  polisn  they  needed  in  the  elegancies  and  graces  of  society. 
Again,  as  a  result  of  the  constant  presence  of  the  troops  in  the  city, 
these  entertainments  were  supplemented  by  performances  on  the 
stage.  There  had  been  theatrical  performances  in  New  York  before 
this  period,  in  storehouses  on  the  wharves,  and  other  places.  In  1750, 
however,  something  more  nearly  like  a  theatertwas  begun  in  a  barn- 
like structure  on  Kip  (Nassau)  Street  not  far  from  the  Dutch  Church, 
which  had  belonged  to  Rip  Van  Dam,  and  could  hold  only  about  three 
hundred  people.  Here,  still,  in  November,  1758,  Shakespearian  plays 
were  given,  followed  always  by  some  brief  farce.  It  was  then  called 
the  New  Theater,  so  that  the  place  hrst  occupied  in  1750  may  have 
been  enlarged  and  better  adapted  to  its  purposes.  A  second  theater 
must  have  been  put  up  soon  after,  for  in  1754  the  deed  for  a  lot  at  111 
Fulton  Street  mentions  that  its  situation  was  in  "  the  rear  of  the 
theater-lot."  This  brings  the  theater  at  17  John  Street,  between 
Broadway  and  Nassau.  In  January,  1700,  Lieutenant-Governor  De 
Liincey  gave  permission  to  build  another  theater  in  Chapel  Street, 
near  Beekman.  In  November  it  was  ready  for  the  public,  a  tragedy 
being  presented,  followed  by  a  farce,  according  to  the  regulation- 
program  of  those  days.  Boxes  were  sold  for  8s.  Tickets  for  the  pit 
cost  5s,  for  the  galleries  3s.  But  the  population  of  New  York  was  not 
yet  ripe  for  this  advanced  state  of  "  capital  "  existence.  When  Colden 
granted  a  license  for  another  theater  in  Beekman  Street,  the  Assem- 
bly disapproved  of  his  act.  Mayor  Cruger  even  urged  the  passage  of 
a  law  forbidding  theatrical  performances  altogether,  and  in  1700  a 
mob  destroyed  the  Beekman  Street  theater. 

There  were  other  evidences  that  New  York  was  as  yet  quite  pro- 
vincial, however  much  of  a  colonial  capital.  The  dress  was  modeled 
after  the  costumes  of  the  Court  of  St.  -lames.  Gentlemen  in  evening 
companies  wore  long-waisted  coats  of  velvet  of  various  colors,  em- 
broidered with  gold  or  silver  lace;  the  vests  were  long  and  of  brilliant 
patterns  and  hues;  small  clothes  of  rich  stuff,  silk  stockings,  with  dia- 
mond, or  gold,  or  silver  buckled  shoes.  There  was  of  course  the 
peruke  upon  the  head,  and  the  handsome,  straight  rapier  by  the  side. 
The  ladies  dressed  their  hair  low  or  high,  whatever  the  latest  mode 
demanded;  wore  stiff-laced  bodices,  high-heeled  colored  shoes,  or  slip- 
pers of  the  daintiest  make.  They  carried  cost  ly  fans.  Yet  while  these 
fashions  remind  one  of  polite  circles  "  at  home,"  there  is  something 
suggestively  bucolic  about  the  fact  that  when,  in  1757.  the  wife  of 
General  Gates  was  seen  riding  abroad  in  a  riding-habit  such  as  Eng- 
lish ladies  were  accustomed  to  wear,  people  raised  their  hands  in 
holy  horror,  saying  that  she  wore  "  men's  clothes,"  and  protested  that 


164 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


"  the  manners  of  the  times  did  not  admit  of  such  female  display."  A 
serious  drawback  to  the  city's  growth  iu  good  social  material  was  the 
abominable  practice  of  the  transportation  of  criminals  to  which  the 
mother  country  was  addicted.  There  were  bitter  complaints  in  the 
Independent  Reflector  on  this  subject,  the  transportation  of  felons 
10  the  colonies  being  freely  characterized  as  an  outrage  to  the  decent 
(dement  there — relieving  one  part  of  the  British  dominions  from  the 
plagues  of  mankind,  to  cast  them  upon  another.  The  climate  of 
the  city  was  so  good  that  to  this  cause  was  attributed  the  fact  that  so 
few  suicides  occurred  there.  Nevertheless,  the  increasing  population, 
without  sanitary  precautions  on  1  lie  basis  of  t  lie  best  scientific  knowl- 
edge, entailed  upon  New  York,  as  upon  cities  in  Europe,  frequent  visi- 
tations of  the  pestilence,  it  was  lamented  that  there  were  such  loose 
regulations  about  physicians.  "  We  have  no  law  to  protect  the  lives 
Of  the  King's  subjects,"  writes  W  illiam  Smith,  dr.,  about  the  year 
1762,  "from  the  malpractice  of  pretenders."  Any  man  might  set  up 
for  a  physician,  or  apothecary,  or  surgeon.  No  candidates  for  these 
important  professions  were  examined,  licensed,  or  sworn.  In  17.~>:> 
New  York  had  forty  doctors,  and  the  Independent  Reflector, 
taking  up  this  question  of  public  interest  also,  recommended  earn- 
estly that  regulations  should  be  established  to  save  the  people  from 
quacks.  In  lT(il)  rigid  provisions  of  that  kind  were  enacted  by  the 
Provincial  Assembly. 

The  capital,  with  English  gentlemen  in  it,  officials,  civil  and  mili- 
tary, and  withal,  plenty  of  the  fair  sex  tinged  with  English  notions  of 
what  was  an  fait — could  hardly  fail  to  have  racing  among  its  attrac- 
tions. A  race  track  was  laid  out  in  1742  on  the  Church  property 
where  the  Astor  House  now  stands,  and  eight  years  later  it  was  still 
there,  for  Lewis  Morris,  .Jr.'s  horse  won  a  prize  from  five  entries. 
There  was  a  racecourse  also  at  Greenwich  in  17.~».'>,  on  Admiral  War 
ren's  estate,  Oliver  De  Lancey  being  in  charge  id'  the  "events."  A 
third  course  was  laid  out  at  Harlem.  Meanwhile  the  track  at  Hemp- 
stead, Long  Island,  was  still  very  popular,  "  Society  "  in  chairs  and 
chaises  crossed  the  ferry  on  the  day  before  the  races  and  spent  the 
night  in  taverns  conveniently  near.  In  .May,  L750,  it  was  estimated 
that  as  many  as  a  thousand  horses  had  collected  in  the  neighborhood. 
In  17.">t;  there  was  a  famous  boat  race  on  the  river.  Sixteen  whale- 
boats  had  gathered  at   New   York,  all  from  Cape  Cod.    These  were 

manned  by  fishermen  w  ho  had  been  engaged  to  do  bateau-service  on 
the  Canada  waters,  in  the  campaign  then  planning.  Cm-  of  these 
boats,  manned  by  six  men,  was  pitted  against  a  boat  manned  by  six 
of  New  York's  best  oarsmen.  But  il  was  hard  to  cope  with  such 
Sturdy  knights  of  t  he  oar  as  t  he  men  from  Cape  Cod,  who  were  in  con- 
stant and  hard  practice  all  t  heir  lives  long.  They  easily  beat  t  he  men 
of  t  he  city. 

In  the  early  months  of  L756  our  little  colonial  capital  was  thrown 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  XI-2W  YORK. 


K;r> 


into  ;i  flutter  of  pleasant  excitement  by  the  arrival  of  ;i  very  impor- 
tant personage,  who  was  worth  more  than  all  the  royal  Governors 
since  Burnet  ]>at  together,  with  a  Cow  generals  like  Loudoun  and 
Abercronibie  into  the  bargain.  The  fame  of  the  hero  of  "  Braddock's 
defeat"  had  gone  through  all  the  colonies,  since  that  melancholy 
event  on  t  he  banks  of  t  he  Monongahela,  July  !>,  1755.  "  Your  name," 
wrote  some  one  from  Philadelphia,  "  is  more  talked  of  in  Philadelphia 
than  that  of  any  other  person  in  the  army."  We  refer  of  course  to 
George  Washington,  now  Colonel  and  Oommander-in-Chief  of  all  the 
Virginia  militia.  A  captain  of  the  regular  army,  with  a  company  of 
thirty  men  under  him,  claimed  to  outrank  the  .Militia-Colonel,  making 
considerable  trouble  for  Washington  in  conducting  his  operations 


BROAD  STREET  AND  CITY  HALL. 


against  hostile  Indians  on  the  borders.  So  he  resolved  to  come  North 
and  have  this  vexatious  question  of  rank  settled  once  for  all.  The 
successor  of  Braddock  was  Major-General  Shirley,  whose  headquar- 
ters were  at  Boston,  and  Washington  determined  to  visit  this  officer 
in  person,  and  get  his  decision.  On  February  4,  1756,  thus  a  few 
weeks  before  he  completed  his  twenty-third  year,  he  and  two  com- 
panions started  from  Mt.  Vernon.  They  traveled  on  horseback,  and 
each  was  attended  by  a  mounted  black  servant.  The  party  stopped  at 
Philadelphia,  and  were  received  there  with  great  enthusiasm.  The 
next  stop  was  at  New  York  City.  It  must  have  created  quite  a  sensa- 
tion in  the  town  to  behold  three  mounted  officers  and  three  servants 
behind  them,  clattering  through  the  streets  on  their  way  to  the  Black 
Horse  Tavern,  on  Garden  Street  near  Broad,  or  to  the  Royal  Oak  on 


166 


HISTORY  OF  THF.  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Broadway,  below  Kxchanjj-o  Place.  Or  perhaps  Washington  was  en- 
tertained at  the  home  of  his  friend  Beverley  Robinson,  the  sen  of 
Speaker  John  Robinson,  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Harnesses.  There 
was  a  house  on  the  corner  of  Park  Place  and  Broadway  at  thai  time, 
and  the  street  running  to  the  river  was  not  known  by  the  modern 
lame,  bu1  is  called  Robinson  Street  on  a  map  of  L756.  Possibly 
young  Robinson  was  living  there.  He  had  married  a  wealthy  New 
York  lady,  a  daughter  of  Adolphus  Philipse,  the  prominenl  merchant, 
landholder  and  councilor.  The  cavalcade  must  have  excited  con- 
siderable attention.  Washington's  figure  was  a  splendid  one,  in  size 
and  proportion  beyond  ordinary  men,  and  his  horses  were  always  of 
the  finest  bi-eed  and  form.  The  three  young  officers  were  gorgeous  in 
their  colonial  uniforms,  sword  knots  of  gold  and  scarlet,  hats  of  the 
latest  fashion,  glittering  with  gold  lace.  Upon  the  housings  of  man 
and  master  was  embroidered  the  Washington  crest.  They  wore  flow- 
ing military  cloaks,  adorned  with  gold  lace.  The  servants  too  were 
richly  attired:  what  in  the  masters'  accouterment  was  gold-laced, 
w  as  silver-laced  for  them,  and  Washington's  was  in  complete  livery 
corresponding  to  the  color  of  the  arms  of  his  house. 

After  a  brief  stay  the  party  sped  along  out  of  town  by  the  Bowery 
Road,  through  Harlem  and  so  on  to  Kingsbridge  on  their  way  to  Bos- 
ton. But  off  a  little  from  the  road,  standing  high  on  the  bluffs  be- 
yond the  Village  of  Harlem  and  commanding  a  wide  view  of  the 
Country  beyond  the  river,  stood  a  handsome  country  house.  We  will 
come  across  it  later  as  the  Morris  ITonse,  again  later  as  the  .Turn el 
Mansion,  and  as  such  we  can  go  and  look  at  it  as  it  stands  in  its  origi- 
nal position  on  101st  Street,  near  St.  Nicholas  A. venue.  This  was  the 
country  seat  of  Beverley  Robinson,  and.  of  course,  the  party  must  halt 
here.  Washington's  mission  at  Boston  was  accomplished  after  a  stay 
often  days,  the  commander  of  thirty  men  being  put  into  his  proper 
place,  lie  and  his  friends  then  started  back  for  home.  A  second  time 
they  stopped  at  New  York;  but  Ave  read  of  no  second  sojourn  at  Phila- 
delphia. Was  it  then  true  that  the  impressionable  Washington,  al- 
ready hit  hard  by  the  arrows  of  Cupid  on  more  than  one  previous 
occasion,  was  smitten  by  one  of  the  New  York  belles?  Mary  Philipse, 
stately,  beautiful,  and  wealthy,  was  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Beverley  Robin- 
son,  and  Washington  must  have  been  thrown  familiarly  into  her  so- 
ciety. TTence  tradition  has  it  that  he  fell  in  love  with  her,  but  that 
she  declined  his  addresses.  She  must  have  been  obdurate  indeed. 
Washington  had  all  the  graces  of  person  to  attract  the  female  eye, 
and  his  fame  for  unparalleled  bravery  in  the  field  was  in  the  mouth  of 
all  the  colony.  TTis  character  too  was  of  the  finest  and  loftiest  final- 
ity. It  seems  as  if  he  must  have  been  irresistible.  Perhaps  he  made 
no  advances:  the  Philipse  blood  was  not  inclined  to  pulsate  vigor- 
ouslv  on  the  side  of  the  people  against  the  crown,  and  even  then  inti- 
mations of  that  loyal  ism  which  bade  her  finally  marry  Captain  Roger 


HISTORY  OF  THK  ( '•  R  KATKR   XKW  YORK. 


107 


Morris,  an  English  officer,  and  prefer  exile  to  England  to  independ- 
ence in  America,  may  have  cropped  out.  Such  was  her  reputation  for 
strength  of  mind,  that  some  one  ventured  l<>  say  thai  if  Washington 
had  married  her  lie  would  never  have  foughl  on  the  side  of  I  he  pa- 
triots. This  is  all  conjecture,  of  course,  and  very  doubtful  at  that. 
It  may  have  been  this  very  attitude  of  mind  winch  prevented  cordi- 
ality and  affinity  between  two  young  people  otherwise  so  hand- 
somely matched.  In  .March,  175<i,  he  was  back  in  Virginia  over- 
whelmed with  work,  and  though  rallied  about  .Miss  Philipse,  and 
warned  that  Captain  Morris  was  about  to  capture  her,  he  serenely 
kept  on  in  the  line  of  duty,  with  no  evidences  of  a  broken  heart. 

It  may  be  stated  here  that  in  the  autumn  of  1752  an  important 
change  in  the  calendar  was  made  by  the  English  authorities  for  Eng- 
land and  her  colonies.  The  ten  days  dropped  out  of  the  calendar  by 
Pope  Gregory  in  1584, — the  accumulations  of  a  slight  error  in  the  cal- 
culation of  the  length  of  the  year, — had  not  heretofore  been  recog- 
nized by  England  as  it  had  been  on  the  Continent,  and  they  had  ac- 
cordingly grown  to  eleven  days.  They  were  now  ordered  dropped 
between  September  2  and  14,  so  as  to  advance  England's  dates  of 
record  and  harmonize  them  with  those  of  other  civilized  nations.  At 
the  same  time  the  year  was  decreed  to  begin  on  January  1,  instead  of 
on  March  25  or  27.  as  before,  which  had  always  necessitated  a  double 
marking  of  the  year-number  during  those  nearly  three  months.  One 
wonders  whether  Washington  celebrated  his  birthday  on  the  22<1  or 
on  the  11th  of  February,  during  his  visit  to  New  York  and  Boston. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


PREPARING  FOR  INDEPENDENCE. 

ELL  might  the  corporation  of  the  '•ancient  city'*  of  New 
York  pay  compliments  t<>  Genera]  Amherst  and  present 
him  with  the  freedom  of  the  city.  Prosperity  was  bound 
to  visit  her  citizens  at  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  threat 
of  the  North  removed  and  the  se;is  cleared  of  the  preying  enemy.  The 
progress  of  the  war.  however,  had  only  made  the  people  of  New  York 
bet  ter  acquainted  with  their  own  importance  in  the  guidance  of  legis- 
lation. They  had  not  lost  sight  for  ;i  moment  of  the  fact  that  the  peo- 
ple had  a  voice  in  the  administration  of  government,  because  they, 
through  their  representatives  in  the  Assembly,  held  the  purse-strings. 
Cornbury's  rascality  had  taught  them  this  useful  lesson.  They  had 
assumed  the  right  to  vote  appropriations  in  order  to  save  the  treas- 
ury: to  keep  it  lip  QOW  Was  to  save  the  State. 

The  w  ar  against  t  he  French  and  Cndians  of  Canada  had  had  a  glori- 
ous issue,  but  it  had  caused  a  vast  increase  of  England's  public  debt, 
which  uow  attained  the  alarming'  figure  of  one  hundred  and  forty 
millions  of  pounds.  To  meet  this  heavy  obligation  England  had  need 
of  drawing  upon  her  resources  in  every  quarter  of  the  empire.  Cer- 
tainly she  might  confidently  look  to  America  for  support  in  this  par- 
ticular. Her  colonies  there  were  perhaps  more  directly  and  largely 
benefited  by  the  defeat  of  the  French  and  the  conquest  of  Canada 
than  any  other  part  of  the  English  dominions.  They  had  borne  a 
noble  part  in  the  conflict,  having  furnished  no  less  than  twenty-five 
thousand  men.  No  one  appreciated  more  keenly  than  Pitt,  the  states- 
man to  w  hose  sagacity  the  present  results  were  mainly  due,  how  im- 
portant was  the  share  contributed  by  the  colonial  forces  to  those  re- 
sults and  the  benefits  accruing t  herefrom.  Yet  it  was  but  reasonable 
that  they  should  now  also  bear  a  part  in  t  he  burden  of  debt .  No  valid 
objection  could  have  been  brought  against  this  proposition:  no  lawful 
complaint  would  have  been  made  against  the  carrying  into  effeel  of 
any  such  purpose.  It  all  depended  upon  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
done. 

It  was  not  apt  to  be  well  or  wisely  done  under  the  King  now  upon 

the  throne.   George  III.  had  begun  to  reign  only  a  year  or  so  before 

this.  It  was  his  aim  not  only  to  reign,  but  also  to  govern.  "  He  a 
king,  George,"  had  been  the  constant  admonition  of  his  mother,  from 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Hi!) 


his  boyhood  up.  He  had  hardly  intelligence  enough  to  comprehend 
that  personal  government  had  become  out  of  date  since  James  Q.'s 
flight,  and  the  "  Bill  of  Rights  "  under  which  William  II  I.  consented 
to  sit.  upon  the  throne.  Yet  by  a,  peculiar  combination  of  circum- 
stances he  was  actually  enabled  to  reproduce  something  of  the  state 
of  things  he  desired.  Men  had  their  price  in  that  day,  and  parties 
were  ready  to  split  up  after  standing  nearly  a  century.  Nevertheless 
it  seemed  as  if  the  region  where  the  most  distinct  assertion  of  the 
King's  personal  will  could  be  most  safely  made,  would  be  England's 
colonies  on  the  American  continent.  Here  certain  crown  preroga- 
tives had  been  clearly  usurped,  without  Bills  of  Rights  or  anything  of 
that  sort,  seized  in  moments  of  exigency,  and  held  on  to  only  upon  the 
practical  but  yet  rather  unconstitutional  basis  that  possession  is  nine 
points  in  law.  "It  is  historically  correct,"  says  Prof.  John  Fiske, 
speaking  of  George  III.,  "  to  regard  him  as  the  person  chiefly  respon- 
sible "  in  bringing  on  the  American  Revolution.  "  For  him,  as  well 
as  for  the  colonies  it  was  a  desperate  struggle  for  political  existence. 
He  was  glad  to  force  on  the  issue  in  America  rather  than  in  England, 
because  it.  would  be  comparatively  easy  to  enlist  British  local  feeling 
against  the  Americans  as  a  remote  set  of  rebels,  with  whom  English- 
men had  no  interests  in  common,  and  thus  obscure  the  real  nature  of 
the  issue.  The  victory  of  the  Americans  put  an  end  to  the  personal 
government  of  the  King." 

The  English  statesmen  had  quickly  seen  what  it  meant  when  the 
Assembly  of  New  York,  under  Cornbury,  had  taken  upon  themselves 
to  vote  government  supplies  only  from  year  to  year,  to  vote  no  sala- 
ries to  officers  except  by  name,  as  well  as  to  elect  their  own  Treasurer. 
It  rained  instructions  to  every  Royal  Governor  since,  insisting  upon 
the  abandonment  of  such  practices.  Lord  Lovelace  had  to  meet  the 
first  brunt  of  the  refusal  which  grew  only  the  more  determined  as  the 
demands  were  repeated,  and  as  the  urgency  of  the  rulers  at  home  con- 
vinced the  colonists  more  thoroughly  of  the  value  of  tin1  prerogative 
they  had  seized.  Hunter  and  Burnet,  men  of  liberal  sentiments, 
struggled  with  more  or  less  grace  to  be  loyal  to  their  instructions. 
Cosby  trampled  upon  the  most  clearly  established  colonial  rights,  but 
could  do  nothing  with  this,  and  so  the  Assembly  was  neither  called 
nor  dissolved,  and  legislation  and  appropriation  were  paralyzed  to- 
gether. Gov.  Clinton,  imagining  he  was  still  the  commander  of  a 
ship,  was  kept  in  a  continual  turmoil  by  vain  efforts  to  make  his  in- 
junctions tell.  Poor  Osborn  was  driven  to  despair  and  suicide,  but 
the  Assembly  could  not  be  moved  from  their  position,  and  thereby 
commit  political  suicide.  George  HI.  thought  it  was  high  time  to  put 
an  end  to  this  persistent,  high-handed  disregard  of  the  instructions 
given  to  Royal  Governors.  Neither  he  nor  his  ministers  did  or  would 
see  the  unwisdom  of  coercion.  They  did  not  appreciate  that  this  prac- 
tice, whatever  might  have  been  its  origin,  after  being  the  vogue  for 


170 


HISTORY  OF  Till'   (iRHATKR  NEW  YORK. 


more  than  half  ;i  century,  had  better  be  recognized  ;is  a  right.  After 
all,  the  colonists  were  British  subjects,  and,  respecting  those  preroga- 
tives of  legislation,  they  stood  upon  the  precise  ground  of  subjects  at 
home.  If  money  had  to  be  raised  in  tin-  colonies  to  maintain  the  em- 
pire as  now  extended,  or  to  meet  the  obligations  of  the  great  debt,  it 
would  have  been  wiser  to  have  done  so  along  the  lines  hitherto  fol- 
lowed in  the  administration  of  the  colonial  funds.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  there  would  have  been  a  generous  and  cheerful  response.  Such 
had  been  made  to  every  appeal  for  the  frequent  and  usually  abortive 
Canadian  campaigns,  from  that,  of  1710  to  the  last.  There  was  the 
warmest  feeling  of  affection,  even  of  deference  and  devotion,  toward 
the  home  country.  Benjamin  Franklin  truly  informed  the  House  of 
Commons  that  the  feeling  of  the  colonists  everywhere  was  "  the  best 
in  the  world.  .  .  .  They  were  led  by  a  thread.  They  had  not  only 
a  respect  but  an  affection  for  Great  Britain,  for  its  laws,  its  customs 
and  manners." 

Instead,  then,  of  going  to  work  in  the  proper  way.  depending  upon 
this  almosi  devout  loyalty,  and  recognizing  (he  methods  that  had 
grown  to  be  rights, — quite  the  contrary  was  done.  To  reach  the  rea- 
sonable and  commendable  object  of  subsidies  or  appropriations  or  a 
revenue,  all  former  concessions  were  withdrawn,  and  all  the  ac- 
customed prad  ices  of  legislation  niton  the  model  of  the  Parliament  at 
home,  were  swept  away.  This  was  sowing  the  wind,  and  the  whirl- 
wind was  soon  ready  for  the  reaping.  It.  was  announced  by  the 
King's  ministers  that  disobedience  to  the  instructions  would  no 
longer  be  tolerated.  The  Assemblies  could  not  be  allowed  to  limit  the 
supplies  in  amount  or  time,  nor  even  to  discuss  Ihem  at  all.  but  were 
simply  to  vote  them  as  demanded.  The  colonies  would  be  taxed 
directly  by  Parliament.  A  civil  list  must  be  voted  first  of  all,  thus 
making  utterly  independent  of  the  will  or  criticism  of  the  people's 
representatives,  the  governors,  judges,  and  all  other  royal  officers. 
Moreover,  after  this,  tenure  of  these  offices  was  to  depend  solely  upon 
the  King's  pleasure  without  regard  to  behavior.  To  make  this 
scheme  most  steadily  effective,  the  disturbing  element  of  possible  ap- 
peals lo  earlier  grants  and  instruments  was  to  be  removed :  that  is.  all 
the  colonial  charters  were  to  be  annulled  at  one  fell  sweep.  The  old 
navigation  laws,  so  rigorous  and  galling  thai  they  had  been  regularly 
evaded  under  every  governor,  were  to  be  put  into  rigid  execution.  Fi- 
nally, in  order  to  secure  obedience  to  these  various  measures,  a  stand- 
ing army  was  to  be  stationed  and  maintained  in  America. 

It  can  easily  be  imagined  w  hat  an  effect  such  a  program  of  adminis- 
tration would  have  upon  a  people  accustomed  to  all  the  essential 
parts  of  self-government  for  over  fifty  years.  Tt  is  an  exceedingly 
superficial  view  of  the  situation  that  the  historian  Leckv  displays 
when  he  says  that  all  that  Pitt  wanted  to  do  was  to  establish  an  army 
Of  ten  thousand  men  for  the  protection  of  the  colonists,  and  that  he 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


171 


asked  them  to  contribute  to  its  support  only  about  6100,000,  <»r  a  third 
ofthecostofitsmaintenan.ee.  I'itl  in  the  first  place  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  measures  just  mentioned.  It  required  men  of  otli<'r  and 
less  caliber  to  propose  such  outrages  upon  free  subjects.  While  to 
such  measures  as  described  above, — however  mildly  administered, 
however  materially  beneficial  to  themselves,  and  however  lightly 
bearing  upon  their  pockets, — the  colonists  could  not  consent  and  re- 
main worthy  of  freedom.  The  whole  case  was  well  put  by  John  Morin 
Scott,  whom  we  met  as  one  of  those  young  friends  who  founded  the 
Society  Library  in  1754,  and  of 
whom  we  shall  frequently  hear 
amid  the  agitations  soon  to  be 
recorded.  In  an  article  in  one  of  the 
journals  of  the  day  he  wrote:  "If 
the  interest  of  the  mother  country 
and  her  colonies  cannot  be  made  to 
coincide;  if  the  same  constitution 
cannot  take  place  in  both;  if  the 
welfare  of  the  mother  country 
necessarily  requires  a  sacrifice  of 
the  most  valuable  natural  rights 
of  the  colonies,  their  right  of  mak- 
ing their  own  laws  and  disposing 
of  their  own  property  by  represen- 
tatives of  their  own  choosing. — then 
the  connection  between  them  ought 
to  cease,  and  sooner  or  later  it  must 
inevitably  cease." 

The  doubtful  honor  of  having 
suggested  to  the  English  Govern- 
ment the  idea  of  taxing  the  colo- 
nies by  compelling  the  use  of 
stamped  paper  in  all  legal  and  mer- 
cantile transactions,  as  well  as  for 
marriage  licenses.  —  belongs  to 
Lieutenant-Governor  Clarke.  It 
was  not  acted  upon  at  his  sugges- 
tion, but  the  times  were  ripe  for  it  now.  On  March  9,  17(i4,  notice 
w  as  given  in  Parliament  by  Lord  Grenville.  the  Prime  Minister,  t  hat  a 
bill  would  be  introduced  shortly  providing  for  the  raising  of  a  revenue 
from  America  by  stamped  paper.  The  New  York  Assembly  led  the 
other  Colonial  Assemblies  in  petitions  to  King  and  Parliament,  beg- 
ging that  such  a  direct  infringement  upon  their  liberties  be  not  per- 
petrated. The  King's  Privy  Council  advised  him  to  place  these  peti- 
tions before  Parliament.  But  in  his  effort  "  to  be  King."  he  acted  on 
his  own  counsel,  and  did  not  present  them.   Nearly  a  year  after  Gren- 


PROVINCIAL  SK.VL. 


172 


HISTORY  OF  TIN-,  (i R KATKR  XF.W  YORK. 


villi's  notice  the  Stamp  Act  was  introduced.  It  passed  the  Commons 
on  February  7.  17i>o.  went  sailing  through  the*  Lords  without  debate, 
and  on  March  22,  17(55,  received  the  Kind's  signature  and  became  law. 
I  a  Apri  I  i  lie  news  of  passage  and  signature  reached  New  York  ( Sty. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  at  this  juncture  the  Chief  Magistracy 
should  have  been  held  by  one  so  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  his 
ow  n  people.    Colden's  career- as  Lieutenant-Governor  presents  a  re- 
markable record.    The  post  was  advocated  as  a  permanent  one  by 
Clinton  with  the  idea  of  bestowing  it  on  him.   But  it  did  not  come  to 
him  until  a  year  after  the  death  of  .lames  De  Lancey,  or  in  1701. 
Three  months  later  General  Monckton  arrived  to  assume  the  Gover- 
norship.   Bui  he  soon  left,  and  ('olden  was  in  power  again  for  a  few 
months,  or  till  June,  1762.    .Monckton  came  back  and  ruled  for  a  year, 
when  ('olden  assumed  the  duties  of  administration  from  dune  L's. 
170:>,  to  November  1-'!,  17(i.~).    On  that  day  Sir  Henry  Moore  became 
Governor,    lie  died  in  September,  1709,  when  ('olden  again  officiated 
for  thirteen  months,  or  until  October  19,  1770.    Earl  Dunmore,  ap- 
pointed to  succeed  Moore,  remained  only  about  nine  months,  when  he 
became  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  was  succeeded  in  turn  by  William 
Tryon,  in  duly,  1771.    Tryon  went  to  England  in  1774,  on  a  leave  of 
absence,  when  once  more  ('olden  took  up  the  reins  of  government 
until  his  return,  or  from  April,  1774,  to  June,  177.">.    lie  then  finally 
retired  to  his  country-seat  near  Flushing,  L.  L.  and  died  in  1  770  at  the 
age  of  eighty-eight.    < 'olden  was  a  thorough  Tory  to  the  end.  Al- 
though opposed  to  some  of  ( 'lint oil's  most  despotic  t act  ics,  he  himself, 
in  the  conflid  between  the  people  and  the  royal  prerogative,  became 
a  stanch,  uncompromising  upholder  of  the  latter,  thereby  making 
himself  i  ho  roughly  unpopular.    He  went  so  far  as  to  propose  a  meas- 
ure which  struck  at  the  most  cherished  and  vital  rights  of  freeborn 
Englishmen,  advising  that  appeals  be  allowed  from  the  verdicts  of 
juries,  to  be  decided  in  England.    The  most  conservative  of  the  colo- 
nists were  justly  alarmed  at  such  an  innovation,    from  all  sides  pe- 
titions were  addressed  to  the  .Ministers  against  the  proposition,  and 
so  oppressive  was  the  scheme  that  even  the  King  and  his  Councilors 
in  their  present  temper  dared  not  impose  it  on  the  colonies.  They 
decided  that  there  could  be  no  appeal  from  the  verdict  of  a  jury.  The 
attitude  of  ('olden  was  all  the  more  discouraging  from  the  fact  that 
he  was  so  closely  identified  with  the  colony  and  all  its  interests. 

Xo  wonder  then  that  he  entirely  misrepresented  the  attitude  or 
spirit  of  his  fellow  countrymen.  "  I  am  fully  persuaded,"  he  w  rote  a 
month  after  the  news  of  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  had  come  to 
New  York.  "  the  People  of  this  Province  will  quietly  submit  to  the 
King's  determination,  whatever  it  be."  What  he  learned  of  disaffec- 
tion he  ascribed  to  a  mere  faction,  lint  it  was  more  than  that,  as  he 
had  cause  soon  to  know.  The  burst  of  indignation  and  resentment 
was  universal  throughout  the  colonies.    And  New  York  was  not  be- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


173 


hind.  As  some  one  says,  she  <li<l  not  wait  for  inspiration  or  Leader- 
ship from  elsewhere.  Golden  also  saw  this,  and  wrote  to  the  British 
government:  "  Whatever  happens  in  this  place  lias  the  greatest  in- 
fluence in  the  other  colonies."  The  united  sentiment  thai  resistance 
must  be  made  to  the  attempt  now  pending  to  tax  the  colonics  in  de- 
fiance of  their  rights  and  against  their  custom,  bore  fruit  in  a  sug- 
gestion that  went  from  one  legislative  body  to  the  other.  It  was  to 
the  effect  that  a  Congress  of  delegates  from  all  the  colonies  be  called 
to  discuss  the  Stamp  Act,  and  take  measures  to  prevent  its  execution. 
In  June  and  July,  L765,  news  came  of  the  appointment  of  Agents  for 
t  he  distribution  of  stamped  paper,  and  also  t  hat  on  November  1,  L765, 
the  Act  itself  would  go  into  effect.  This  only  .stimulated  the  scheme 
of  a  Congress,  and  it  was  appointed  for  October  7,  so  as  to  give  ample 
time  for  the  discussion  of  methods  for  opposing  the  Act  before  it  went 
into  force.  The  place  appointed  for  the  meeting  was  New  York  Oily, 
as  the  most  central  in  location. 

Much  of  this  determined  opposition  and  aroused  sentiment  as  well 
as  organized  movement  was  due  to  a  body  of  agitators  known  as  the 
"  Sons  of  Liberty."  The  term  originated,  as  historians  uniformly  tell 
us,  with  Col.  Bane,  the  companion  of  Wolfe  in  the  Quebec  campaign. 
He  had  been  favorably  impressed  with  the  conduct  of  t  he  Americans 
in  that  undertaking,  and  always  remained  their  friend  and  defender. 
Townshend  in  the  cour.se  of  a  speech  on  the  colonies  in  Parliament 
had  made  the  remark  that  the  Americans  were  "  children  planted  by 
the  care  of  Great  Britain."  At  the  (dose  of  the  speech  Barre"  leaped 
to  his  feet,  and  in  an  impassioned  defense  repudiated  that  statement, 
and  retorted  that  the  Americans  were  "  Sons  of  Liberty."  This 
phrase  struck  a  sympathetic  cord  in  the  colonies,  and  the  agitators 
for  resistance  to  proposed  oppressions  selected  that  name  as  a  term 
of  honor.  This  is  the  account  of  the  origin  of  the  name  usually  given  ; 
yet  some  writers  make  mention  of  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  as  active  in  the 
defense  of  Zenger  in  his  famous  trial, the  procuring  of  Andrew  Hamil- 
ton being  due  to  them.  They  were  also  called  "  Liberty  Boys  "  at 
times.  There  are  no  clear  evidences  of  their  organization  into  socie- 
ties until  they  had  been  operating  for  some  time,  because  their  pro- 
ceedings were  in  a  measure  kept  secret,  and  their  earlier  exploits 
mostly  conducted  under  cover  of  night.  Many  of  them  maintained  a 
discussion  of  public  questions  in  the  journals  of  the  day,  the  articles 
being  signed,  as  was  then  the  custom,  by  pseudonyms.  The  Sons  of 
Liberty  represented  perhaps  the  rather  more  violent  or  radical  wing 
of  the  popular  party,  and  it  needed  at  times  the  restraining  hand  of 
the  more  moderate  patriots  to  keep  them  within  the  bounds  of  pro- 
priety or  wisdom.  Societies  seem  to  have  sprung  up  spontaneously 
in  every  colony,  who  established  communication  among  themselves 
fur  the  purpose  of  concerted  action.  In  January,  L766,  these  plans 
for  an  association  on  an  intercolonial  basis  had  assumed  definite 


171 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


shape,  ;iud  now  also  the  precaution  of  secrecy  ceased  to  be  observed. 
The  leadei  s  ol  the  .New  1  oik  Sons  of  Liberty  were  men  ol  force  in 
several  ways.  We  find  familiar  names  among  tliem.  Among  the 
more  moderate  men  were  W  illiam  Snnth  and  William  Livingston, 
tne  former  the  sou  of  the  lawyer  disbarred  in  the  Zenger  case.  John 
Horin  Scott,  another  lawyer,  and  also  a  graduate  of  Yale,  as  were  tne 
others,  was  tne  author  of  several  trenchant  articles  in  the  news- 
papers, usually  signed  "  Freeman,"  boldly  deducing  the  logical  ne- 
cessity  of  independence  from  existing  conditions,  lie  leaned  to- 
ward the  more  violent  counsels.  A  picturesque  character  was  Cap- 
tain Isaac  Sears:  he  came  to  be  called  "  King  Sears"  in  connection 
w  ith  his  exploits  as  a  leader  among,  the  Sons  of  Liberty.  In  1750. 
when  in  command  of  a  privateer  sloop  of  only  fourteen  guns,  he  fear- 
lessly attacked  a  French  ship  of  twenty-four,  lie  grappled  with  his 
superior  quarry  three  times,  when  they  were  separated  by  a  gale. 
A  man  of  such  resolution  would  be  apt  to  engage  in  enterprises  re- 
quiring courage,  and  the  times  offered  many  such.  John  Lamb  was 
another  leader,  who  championed  their  cause  as  member  of  the  As- 
sembly; and  still  another  hero  was  Alexander  McDougall,  of  w  hom 
mole  anon.  Among  the  earliest  enterprises  indicating  organization 
among  the  Sons  of  Liberty  iu  New  York  was  the  rescue  of  some  im- 
pressed seamen.  The  practice  of  impressment,  as  we  have  had  occa- 
sion to  mention  more  than  once,  was  always  hotly  resented  by  the 
people  of  New  York.  At  the  present  lime  it  was  but  adding  fuel  to 
the  dames  to  engage  iu  such  attempts.  In  L7(i4  four  fishermen  were 
one  day  taken  from  their  boat  in  the  Hay,  and  compelled  to  enlist  on 
board  of  a  British  man-of-war  lying  iu  Harbor.  The  next  evening  the 
captain  of  the  ship  came  ashore,  doubtless  without  the  least  thought 
of  being  molested,  lie  soon  discovered  his  mistake.  A  party  of  men 
met  him  at  the  wharf,  took  quiet  possession  of  his  person,  and 
marched  him  to  the  Merchants'  Coffee  House  in  Wall  Street,  w  here 
he  w  as  compel  led  to  sign  an  order  for  the  discharge  of  the  four  fisher- 
men. Another  party  had  in  t  he  mean  time  dragged  the  captain's  boai 
on  shore  and  bearing  it  in  triumph  to  t  he  green  on  the  Commons,  t  bey 
made  a  bonfire  of  it  there. 

The  summer  of  1  "('>."">  passed  away  and  November  1  was  drawing 
near  apace,  when  on  .Monday,  October  7,  gathered  in  the  Assembly 

<  Jhamber  of  t  he  <  'ity  Hall  at  New  York  t  he  Stamp  Act  <  Jongress  called 
for  that  (lale.  Twenty-eight  members  look  their  seats.  The  dele- 
gates had  in  most  cases  been  appointed  by  the  Colonial  Assemblies. 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  had  none  present,  because  their  Assem- 
blies had  been  prorogued.  The  Governor  of  Georgia  had  forbidden 
the  Assembly  to  send  delegates.  New  Hampshire  was  not  able  to 
send  any.     The  New    York  Assembly  was  not   called  together  by 

<  'olden  and  con  Id  not  appoint  representatives,  but  the  committee  that 
had  been  in  correspondence  with  other  colonies  were  admitted  as 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


175 


members  of  the  Congress.  These  were  John  Cruger,  just  retired  from 
the  Mayor's  chair;  Robert  K.  Livingston,  Philip  Livingston,  William 
Bayard,  and  Leonard  Lispenard.  Thus  nine  of  the  thirteen  colonies 
were  represented,  the  number  that  was  later  required  to  make  valid 
the  Federal  Union.  Timothy  Ruggles,  of  Massachuset  ts,  w  as  chosen 
chairman,  and  the  sessions  were  held  with  closed  doors.  A  commit- 
tee appointed  to  draft  a  "  Declaration  of  Lights  and  Grievances,"  re- 
ported on  October  11),  and  their  report  was  adopted.  Thereupon 
three  committees  were  appointed:  one  to  prepare  a  petition  to  the 
King;  a  second  to  prepare  one  to  the  House  of  Lords;  a  third  one  to 
the  House  of  Commons.  On  three  successive  days  these  petitions 
were  discussed  and  adopted,  and  on  a  fourth  a  resolution  was  passed 
calling  upon  the  several  colonies  to  appoint  agents  in  England  to 
[►resent  the  petitions  and  to  seek  relief.  Strangely  enough  the  Chair- 
man and  one  member  from  New  Jersey  declined  to  sign  these  peti- 
tions. Exactly  three  weeks  after  the  beginning  of  the  session,  or  on 
Monday,  October  the  28th,  the 
Congress  adjourned.  It  had 
not  met  with  any  recognition 
from  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
as  might  be  expected. 

It  is  not  quite  certain  who 
was  the  first  to  suggest  the 
Stamp  Act  Congress,  probably 
.Massachusetts.  But  there  is 
no  doubt  whence  came  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  "  Non-importa- 
tion Agreement."  No  measure 
was  more  effective  in  thwart- 
ing the  purposes  of  the  Stamp  Act;  indeed,  it  was  this  which  led 
to  its  prompt  repeal  as  the  result  of  clamors  by  Englishmen  at 
home.  It  was  fitting  that  this  "agreement"  should  originate 
in  New  York,  even  then  to  so  great  a  degree  the  commercial 
center  of  the  Atlantic  border.  The  New  York  <l<t:rllc  contained 
a  call  in  its  issue  of  October  31,  inviting  the  merchants  of  the 
city  to  meet  that  evening  in  the  Long  Loom  of  Burns's  Coffee 
House,  at  No.  1)  Broadway,  opposite  the  Bowling  Green.  There, 
on  "  Hallow  E'en,"  the  evening  before  All  Saints'  Day,  November  1, 
1 7<i5,  the  fateful  day  when  the  Stamp  Act  was  to  go  into  effect,  two 
hundred  or  more  gentlemen  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits  met 
and  subscribed  to  these  drastic  agreements:  1.  To  import  no  goods 
from  England  until  the  Stamp  Act  be  repealed.  2.  To  countermand 
all  orders  already  sent,  on  the  same  condition.  .*{.  To  sell  no  goods 
on  commission  sent  from  England  after  January  1,  before  which  date 
notice  of  the  agreement  might  be  expected  to  have  reached  the  ship- 
ping merchants  there.   4.  To  abide  by  the  agreement  until  abrogated 


burns's  coffee  house. 


L76 


HISTORY  OF  THK  GRF.ATKR  XF\Y  YORK. 


ni  a  general  meeting  culled  for  that  purpose.  As  a  corollary  to  these 
resolutions  retail  in  ere  ha  nt  s  agreed  to  sell  no  goods  after  January  L, 
unless  the  Ad  were  repealed.  This  "  Non-importation  Agreement 
was  soon  adopted  by  the  merchants  of  other  cities:  iii  Philadelphia 
on  November  7;  in-  Boston  on  December  Even  in  November  it  was 
estimated  that  the  value  of  the  goods  countermanded  would  reach  the 
enormous  sum  of  £700,000.  It  was  most  religiously  kepi  at  New 
York,  although  its  merchants  were  the  heaviest  sufferers.  No  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  enforce  it,  but  the  Sons  of  Liberty  in  an 
unofficial  way  were  constantly  on  the  alert  to  prevent  infringements. 
One  merchant,  Theophylact  Bache,  having  his  residence  and  stoic 
on  the  south  side  of  Hanover  Square,  received  notice  of  the  arrival  of 
a  ship  on  .May  1*4,  1766,  with  a  cargo  of  goods  consigned  to  him  from 
Bristol.  They  were  of  course  shipped  after  .January  1.  .Mr.  Bache 
had  no  knowledge  of  its  coming,  and  cheerfully  acquiesced  when  the 
Sons  of  Liberty,  led  by  "King  Sears,"  went  on  board  the  ship.  and. 
stamping  its  papers  with  the  arms  of  New  York,  sent  it  back  to  Eng- 
land. A  feature  of  the  times  during  which  the  Agreement  was  in 
force  was  the  wearing  of  nothing  but  homespun  clothing  by  the  men. 
The  New  York  Gazette  printed  in  large  type  on  its  first  page  the 
patriotic  sentiment:  It  is  better  to  wear  a  homespun  coat  than  to 
lose  our  libert  y."  Under  the  brick  arches  of  the  Royal  Exchange,  foot 
of  Broad  Street,  a  sort  of  fair  or  market  was  held  for  home-made 
goods  exclusively. 

W  hile  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  was  still  in  session  the  vessel  carry- 
ing stamped  [taper  for  use  in  New  York  arrived  in  the  Bay.  The 
paper  had  reached  Boston  in  September,  and  Philadelphia  on  October 
5;  it  reached  New  York  on  October  2'A,  17l>.~>.  Lieutenant-Governor 
Colden  apprehended  trouble,  and  had  requested  Captain  Kennedy,  of 
t  he  man-of-war  "  Coventry,"  to  watch  for  t  he  arrival  of  the  ship  bear- 
ing the  stamps.  They  came  in  the  "  Edward  "  in  ten  packages,  stowed 
promiscuously  among  the  cargo,  without  mention  in  the  bill  of  lad- 
ing, and.  it  was  claimed,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Captain.  The 
Edward  was  conducted  in  state  up  the  Bay  between  the  Coventry 
and  a  smaller  war  vessel,  and  anchored  under  the  guns  of  the  fort. 
Cannon  were  tired  to  announce  the  important  arrival,  perhaps  to 
defy  I  he  excited  people.  Two  days  later  ('olden  summoned  his  ( \>un- 
cil';  only  three  attended.  They  advised  that  a  sloop  be  hired  to  carry 

I  lie  paper  on  shore.  Not  one  could  be  obtained  for  t  he  purpose.  Then 
the  Captains  of  His  .Majesty's  ships  agreed  to  unload  and  land  the 
unwelcome  packages.  They  were  brought  ashore  and  lodged  care- 
fully within  the  walls  of  the  fort,  either  in  Colden's  mansion,  or  the 
Si  i  i clary's  office.  Sir  I  lenry  .Moore  w  as  expected  at  any  moment,  and 
the  packages  were  noi  to  be  opened  until  he  arrived. 

Everyt  hing  w  as  as  yet  quiet.  On  the  a rri  val  of  the  "  Edwa rd  "  all 
the  merchant  ships  had  half-masted  their  colors.    On  the  morning  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


177 


October  31  the  New  York  Gazette  displayed  mourning'  lines  and 
types.   It  contained  a  funeral  oration,  or  sermon,  headed  as  follows: 
"  A  funeral  lamentation  on  the 
DEATH  OF  LIBERTY 
Who  finally  expires  on  this 
31st  of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  MDCCLX  V, 
And  of  our  slavery, 
I." 

A  week  before,  on  the  night  of  the  24th,  when  the  "Edward''  had  been 
in  port  one  day,  and  was  not  yet  discharged  of  her  papers,  manuscript 
placards  iu  large  letters  were  pinned  on  the  doors  of  public  buildings, 
and  on  street  corners,  bearing  the  words: 

"  Pro  Patria. 

The  first  Man  that  either  distributes  or  makes  use  of  Stampt  Paper, 
let  him  take  Care  of  his  House,  Person  »fc  Effects. 

Vox  Populi;  We  dare." 

So  something  was  evidently  brewing.  Golden  remained  in  a  fool's 
paradise,  and  was  certain  he  could  put  the  law  in  force  on  November 
1.  His  son.  David  ('olden,  solicited 
the  office  of  Stamp  Distributer, 
which  McEvers,  the  original  in- 
cumbent, had  prudently  resigned 
as  the  result  of  some  unmistakable 
representations  by  the  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty. In  writing  for  this  appoint- 
ment on  October  26,  young  Golden 
informed  the  Commissioners  in 
London  that  "the  Act  would  be  qui- 
etly submitted  to  in  a  few  days." 
The  prediction  was  hardly  borne  out 
by  the  events.  The  Lieutenant-Governor  felt  safe  in  his  fort,  repaired 
and  strengthened,  with  one  hundred  men  from  a  royal  regiment  of 
artillery  back  of  the  ramparts.  A  Major  James  commanded  the  gar- 
rison. He,  too,  had  to  have  his  say  about  the  people  and  their  recep- 
tion of  the  Act.  He  boasted  that  "  he  would  cram  the  stamps  down 
their  throats  with  the  end  of  his  sword,  and  if  they  attempted  to  rise 
he  would  drive  them  all  out  of  town  for  a  pack  of  rascals,  with  four 
and  twenty  men."  It  was  fine  language,  and  the  response  to  it  could 
wait,  but  it  was  not  for  long.  The  day  for  the  Stamp  Act  to  go  into 
effect  at  last  dawned,  and  intimations  of  trouble  began  to  fill  the  air. 
Toward  evening  a  great  crowd  had  gathered  in  the  "  Fields  "  (City 
Hall  Park).  Here  was  to  be  seen  a  portable  gallows  upon  which  were 
suspended  two  figures.  One  was  an  effigy  of  the  unpopular  Colden. 
Acting-Governor,  bearing  the  inscription,  "  The  rebel  drummer  of 
1715,"  a  bitter  reminder  of  Colden's  past  disloyalty  to  the  present 
reigning  house,  which  he  served  with  such  unseemly  zeal  against  his 


{TVo  fatmvu 

_     Ay  W  _ 

LIBERTY  BOYS'  PLACARD. 


178 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


fellow-colonists.  The  other  w  as  a  representation  of  the  devil,  carry- 
ing a  boot,  ;i  somewhat  lame  pun  on  the  name  of  the  King's  favorite 
minister,  Lord  Bute,  to  whom  was  traced  most  of  the  advice  for  op- 
pressing the  colonies.  While  the  people  were  gazing  upon  these  sug- 
gestive effigies,  a  procession  carrying  six  hundred  lights  came  in  sight, 
in  the  midst  of  which  was  a  sailor  carrying  a  chair  on  his  head,  in 
which  was  seated  a  figure  of  Colden  in  paper.  Marching  down  Fair 
(Fulton)  Street  to  Queen  (Pearl),  through  Queen  and  past  the  Fly 
.Market  to  Wall,  they  turned  into  Wall,  receiving  encouraging  shouts 
from  the  company  gathered  in  the  Merchants'  Colfee  House  on  the 
corner,  and  giving  three  cheers  for  McEvers  for  having  resigned  the 
Stamp  agency,  as  they  passed  his  house.  On  approaching  the  City 
Hall  the  .Mayor  and  Common  Council  met  the  procession,  attended  by 
constables  with  their  staves.  But  the  leaders,  with  perfect  good 
humor,  yet  unmistakable  firmness,  commanded  the  city  authorities 
to  make  way  for  the  Provincial  Chief  Magistrate.  The  order  was 
obeyed,  and  soon  the  procession  turned  into  Broadway  and  so  down 
to  the  Bow  ling  Green,  stopping  in  front  of  the  fort  gate.  Here  were 
the  artillerymen  under  James,  and  a  force  of  marines  and  sailors  un- 
der Captain  Kennedy,  drawn  up  upon  the  ramparts.  Loaded  guns 
were  pointing  their  muzzles  directly  at  the  people.  Some  were  for 
breaking  down  the  fort  gate,  and  many  tauntingly  dared  the  soldiers 
to  fire  into  the  crowd.  The  people  were  prevailed  upon  not  to  storm 
the  fori  gate,  but  it  was  impossible  to  prevent  all  acts  of  violence. 
They  broke  open  Colden's  coach-house,  which  was  outside  the  fort, 
dragged  forth  his  coach, placed  the  paper  effigy  within  it,  and  with  the 
sailor,  who  had  carried  it,  on  the  driver's  seat,  the  torchlight  procession 
marched  back  along  Broadway  to  the  Fields.  On  the  way  they  met 
the  party  who  had  charge  of  the  gallows  with  the  two  effigies  upon  it. 
A  halt  was  made,  a  loud  voice  proclaimed  that  no  stones  should  be 
thrown,  nor  windows  broken,  nor  bodily  harm  be  done  to  any  person. 
Then  the  torchlight  crowd  turned  about,  and  the  whole  multitude 
marched  back  to  Bowling  Green.  Here  the  gallows  was  planted, 
around  it  were  piled  the  pickets  and  planks  of  the  fence,  and  upon  this 
heap  of  improvised  faggots  was  drawn  the  coach,  still  occupied  by 
the  Lieutenant-Governor  in  paper.  The  torch  was  then  applied  to  the 
pile  and  a  lusty  bonfire  soon  lit  up  the  November  sky.  consuming 
gallows  and  coach  and  effigies  and  all.  Not  very  gentle,  or  perhaps 
proper,  proceedings  these,  but.  yet  pretty  moderate  for  a  mob  excited 
by  the  threat  of  a  grinding  injustice,  and  the  suppression  of  their 
dearest  liberties.  It  is  a  pity  that  there  now  followed  an  act  of  wan- 
ton rowdyism;  but  Major  James  had  not  had  his  answer  yet.  and  the 
sight  of  him  upon  the  ramparts  in  impotent  rage,  may  have  reminded 
the  populace  that  they  had  a  score  to  settle  with  him.  At  any  rate, 
after  the  holocaust  of  coach  and  gallows  and  effigies,  a  section  of  the 
mob  rushed  up  Broadway  back  to  the  Fields,  and  then  down  Warren 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


179 


Street  to  its  terminus  at  the  river.  Here  stood  an  eleganl  villa,  sur- 
rounded by  a  beautiful  garden,  with  trellises  and  arbors  and  summer- 
houses.  It  was  owned,  or  occupied,  by  Major  James,  who  must  have 
been  a  man  of  means  and  of  literary  and  scientific  tastes,  as  well  as 
a  braggart,  for  it  contained  a  library,  costly  sets  of  mathematical 
instruments,  fine  furniture,  and  no  end  of  good  wines  and  liquors.  By 
two  o'clock  that  morning  there  was  nothing  left  of  all  this  but  the 
charred  remains  of  the  house,  a  ruined  garden,  and  scattered  wine 
casks.  It  was  the  one  blot  upon  New  York's  resistance  to  the  Stamp 
Act.  The  Major  was  afterward  compensated  for  his  losses  by  the 
British  Government. 

The  stamped  paper  packages  were  all  this  time  behind  the  ram- 
parts of  the  fort.  Colden  and  his  Council  wanted  to  remove  them  to 
Captain  Kennedy's  frigate,  but  that  officer  had  a  wholesome  fear  for 
his  many  valuable  houses  in  the  city,  inherited  through  his  wife,  who 
belonged  to  the  Watts  family.  He  declined  to  touch  the  papers.  The 
people  meantime  were  not  content  to  let  the  hated  paper  remain  be- 
yond its  reach.  To  avert 
worse  violence  than  had 
hitherto  been  committed, 
the  corporation  resolved 
to  request  that  it  be 
placed  in  their  custody. 
The  Mayor,  accompanied 
by  all  the  Aldermen,  and 
followed  by  a  great  mul- 
titude of  people,  loudly 
cheering,  repaired  to  the 
fort,  and  desired  of  Col- 
den that  the  packages  be 
deposited  in  the  City 
Hall.  Taking  a  receipt 
for  them  Colden  readily 
handed  over  the  dangerous  material.  This  occurred  on  Novem- 
ber 5.  On  November  13  Sir  Henry  Moore  arrived  in  the 
Minerva,  but  no  consignment  of  stamps  was  aboard  this  ship, 
although  it  was  fully  expected  that  this  would  be  the  case.  Not 
till  January  did  a  vessel  arrive  with  the  second  installment.  The 
Sons  of  Liberty  at  once  boarded  her,  compelled  the  delivery  of 
the  ten  packages  of  stamped  paper  she  had  on  board,  carried 
them  from  Cruger's  Wharf  to  one  of  the  shipyards  further  up  along 
the  East  River  shore,  and  burned  them  in  tar-barrels.  Everything 
was  conducted  in  the  most  orderly  manner.  Meantime  the  resistance 
to  the  use  of  stamps  which  the  people  had  imposed  upon  themselves 
tested  their  patriotism  severely.  Tradespeople  and  day  laborers  felt 
the  stagnation  of  business  as  a  heavy  drain  upon  their  scanty  income. 


KENNEDY  AND  WATTS   HOUSES,   1    AND  3 
BROADWAY. 


180 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


The  merchants  lost  great  sums,  but  had  plenty  to  fall  back  upon. 
Yet  all  was  borne  cheerfully  and  patiently,  with 'no  infringement  of 
the  non-importation  agreement.  The  boycotting  of  stamped  paper 
affected  family  life  in  other  ways:  as  no  marriage  license  could 
be  issued  without  a  stamp,  marriages  were  performed  w  it  limit 
licenses,  the  bans  being  proclaimed  publicly  in  church.  But  the  peo- 
ple were  getting  a  powerful  ally  across  the  water  in  the  distress 
caused  iu  Great  Britain  by  the  non-importation  agreement.  Manu- 
facturers and  merchants  besieged  Parliament  with  complaints  of  the 
ruinous  falling  off  of  exports  to  the  colonies.  At  last,  on  February  22, 
1766,  a  date  to  become  auspicious  in  American  history,  and  at  that 
time  celebrated  only  at  Mt.  Vernon,  the  motion  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  Avas  first  made  in  Parliament.  Pitt,  in  agony  from  the 
gout,  made  out  to  get  to  his  place  in  the  Commons  to  speak  in  favor 
of  the  motion,  which  he  said  was  a  debt  owing  "  to  the  liberty  of  un- 
represented subjects,"  and  should  prevail  "  in  gratitude  to  their  hav- 
ing supported  England  through  three  wars."  At  midnight,  March  4, 
the  motion  wag  earned;  on  March  17,  the  Uouse  of  Lords  confirmed 
the  action,  and  on  March  18,  the  King  gave  his  assent,  but  not  with 
very  good  grace.  The  repeal  was  greeted  with  joy  in  London.  It  may 
be  imagined  with  what  delight  the  news  of  it  was  received  in  Ameri- 
ca. Premature  accounts  reached  New  York  at  various  times,  even  as 
early  as  April  1.  But  not  till  May  20  did  authentic  information  of  the 
happy  event  get  to  this  city  by  an  express  sent  from  Boston,  where 
one  of  John  Hancock's  vessels  had  brought,  it  from  England.  The 
Sons  of  Liberty  were  at  once  on  hand  with  a  celebration.  There  was 
a  dinner  at  Howard's  Tavern  in  the  Fields,  salutes  of  guns,  aud  in 
the  evening  bonfires  and  illuminations  galore.  But.  the  joy  was  re- 
served for  its  most  effusive  expression  until  June  4,  King  George's 
birthday.  A  banquet  was  spread  for  three  hundred  and  forty  of  the 
best  citizens,  very  nearly  the  present  "  400  "  already,  as  it  appears. 
For  the  more  plebeian  citizens  an  ox  was  roasted  whole  on  the  Com- 
mons, flanked  on  either  side  by  platforms  bearing  twenty-five  barrels 
of  beer.  A  hogshead  was  made  the  receptacle  for  rum.  sugar,  water, 
and  other  ingredients  for  a  huge  supply  of  punch.  Twenty-five  cords 
of  wood  were  idled  about  a  tall  pole  bearing  on  top  twenty-live  kegs 
of  tar,  and  a  line  blaze  the  whole  made  at  night.  The  houses  in  every 
street  were  illuminated.  Twenty-five  guns  were  planted  on  the  Com- 
mons, for  firing  salutes;  and  everywhere  the  people  shouted  them- 
selves hoarse  over  the  rather  dubious  title:  "  Long  live  the  King,  the 
darling  of  his  people."  As  this  peculiar  darling  was  twenty-eight 
years  old  in  the  year  1706,  one  wonders  why  "  twenty-live  "  prevailed 
so  much  in  the  celebration  instead  of  the  other  figure.  A  more  per- 
manent form  of  recognition  was  an  appropriation  by  the  Assembly 
for  statues  of  the  King  and  Pitt,  the  great  friend  of  America.  Four 
years  later  they  arrived:  that  of  George  III.  was  of  lead,  richly  gilt. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


181 


It  was  placed  in  the  center  of  Bowling  Green,  and  became  useful  for 
making  bullets  which  served  the  cause  of  patriotism  in  1770.  It  was 
unveiled  August  16,  1770.  On  September  7,  Pitt's  statue,  of  marble, 
was  placed  iu  Wall  Street  at  its  intersection  with  Smith  i  William). 
The  British  soldiers  dealt  severely  with  it  in  the  later  war,  aud  its 
headless  remains  are  treasured  among  the  relics  of  the  New  York 
Historical  Society,  at  Second  Avenue  and  11th  Street. 

The  Stamp  Act  was  repealed,  the  dagger  was  drawn  out  of  the  na- 
tion's heart,  but  a  twist  was  given  in  the  very  act  of  withdrawal. 
Even  Pitt  himself  not  only  had  assented  to,  but  insisted  upon  the 
right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonies,  and  to  make  laws  bindiug  on 
the  colonies  "  in  all  cases  whatsoever."  Accordingly  in  May,  1707, 
the  British  Ministry  was  at  work  again  providing  a  measure  of  taxa- 
tion without  representation  for  America,  not  in  the  way  of  stamped 
paper  this  time,  but  by  means  of  port-duties  on  wine,  oil,  and  fruit 
when  carried  directly  from  Spain  and  Portugal;  and  on  various  other 
articles  of  every-day  use,  such  as  glass,  paper,  lead,  painters'  colors, 
and  tea.  In  somewhat  ominous  combination  with  this  action  of  Par- 
liament, an  act  was  passed  forbidding  the  Governor  of  New  York  to 
consent  to  the  legislation  of  its  Assembly,  thus  disfranchising  that 
body.  Neither  the  one  action  nor  the  other  was  likely  to  assure  the 
colonists  that  they  might  now  give  up  all  resistance  to  the  mother 
country.  There  was  a  meeting  of  citizens  at  Boston  which  resolved 
to  act  with  regard  to  the  articles  mentioned  as  the  colonists  had  done 
before  with  regard  to  all  goods  until  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 
But  there  was  no  great  concerted  movement  again  all  along  the  line 
until  1709,  when  was  formed  the  second  non-importation  agreement. 
As  in  the  former  one  two  calls  for  a  meeting  were  necessary  to  bring 
the  New  York  merchants  together.  They  gathered  at  a  place  to  be- 
come historic  later,  and  which  still  bears  the  name  that  has  made  it 
so.  A  tavern  called  the  Queen's  Head  was  kept  at  the  corner  of 
Broad  and  Dock  (Pearl)  streets,  by  two  men  in  partnership.  Later 
it  was  bought  by  Samuel  Fraunce,  who  had  a  place  somewhere  near 
the  Fields  at  this  time.  Fraunce's  Tavern  still  bears  its  old  name  on 
the  old  spot.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  arrange  for  making  the 
agreement  general  among  the  colonies.  Goods  of  all  kinds,  with  but 
few  exceptions,  were  forbidden  to  be  bought  or  sold  on  one's  own 
account  or  on  commission,  if  imported  from  England, — after  October, 
1709, — until  the  Act  of  Parliament  imposing  duties  on  glass,  paper, 
painters'  colors,  tea,  and  other  articles,  was  repealed.  A  provision 
was  attached  that  Boston  and  Philadelphia  merchants  should  join  in 
the  agreement,  before  June  1st.  Somehow  these  other  cities  did  not 
so  quickly  fall  into  line  as  desired.  Importers  at  New  York  signed 
the  paper  almost  to  a  man.  As  the  merchants  of  the  two  other  cities 
seemed  ready  toward  autumn,  another  meeting  was  held  at  New 
York  on  August  25.  when  the  previous  action  was  confirmed,  forti- 


182 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tied  by  the  actual  signatures  now  collected.  By  September  5  the  Bos- 
ton merchants  and  traders  had  signed,  and  on  September  22  a  meet- 
ing of  merchants  was  called  at  Philadelphia.  The  agreement  as  now- 
made  set  the  time  for  the  non-importation  from  January  1,  1709,  to 
January  1,  1770. .  It  was  carried  on  into  the  year  1770,  and  then  when 
Lord  North  had  become  Prime  Minister,  its  effect  became  apparent  in 
the  repeal  of  the  duties  on  all  the  specified  articles  except  tea.  In 
July,  1770,  the  New  York  merchants  sent  letters  to  those  of  Boston 
and  Philadelphia  stating  that  they  would  cease  to  hold  themselves  to 
the  non-importation  agreement.  It  was  thought  that  this  action  was 
due  to  the  withdrawal  of  the  duties  from  all  but  the  one  article  and 
New  Yoi  k  was  bitterly  denounced  then  by  both  Boston  and  Philadel- 
phia for  breaking  faith  while  one  of  the  specified  items  still  remained 
in  the  Act.  But  New  York  had  another  reason,  which  so  philosophical 
and  usually  so  fair  a  historian  as  Prof.  John  Fiske  seems  to  miss 
strangely.  Bancroft  is  more  just,  and  declares:  "  New  York  alone 
had  been  true  to  its  engagements  ...  it  was  impatient  of  a  sys- 
tem of  voluntary  renunciation  which  was  so  unequally  kept."  Bos- 
ton and  Philadelphia  merchants  while  openly  making  a  boast  of  ad- 
herence had  shamelessly  broken  it  in  secret.  An  appeal  to  figures 
will  show  the  facts  in  the  case.  While  in  New  England  imports  had 
fallen  off  from  £110,000  in  1707-S,  to  £207,000  in  1768-9;  and  in  Penn- 
sylvania from  £182.000  to  £199,000,  in  New  York  was  realized  the 
enormous  reduction  from  £482,000  to  £71,000.  It  was  no  wonder 
New  York  men  were  tired  of  carrying  the  sacrifice  on  their  shoulders 
alone.  Lord  North,  in  his  speech  on  the  repeal  of  all  duties  except  on 
tea.  in  March,  1770.  informed  the  House  that  "  New  York  has  kept 
strictly  to  its  agreements,  but  the  infractions  of  them  by  the  people 
of  Boston  show  that  they  will  soon  come  to  nothing."  And  it  w  as  the 
opinion  of  one  of  the  American  agents  in  England  that  the  whole  of 
the  tax, — that  on  tea  also, — would  have4  been  removed  if  "  the  non- 
importation agreement  had  been  as  virtuously  observed  throughout 
America  as  it  had  been  in  New  York."  W  ith  such  plain  statements 
within  easy  reach  it  is  somewhat  discouraging  to  read  what  some 
men  make  of  history. 

The  non-importation  agreements  were  thus  annulled,  and  at  the 
same  time  no  duties  were  left  but  that  on  tea.  Without  any  special 
concert  in  action  that  one  article  seems  to  have  been  pretty  effectu- 
ally boycotted,  for  the  English  East  India  Company  was  brought  to 
the  brink  of  ruin  by  its  inability  to  export  its  tea  to  America.  There- 
upon, in  August.  177.'?.  the  Company  made  request  to  expoii  tea  to 
America  free  of  duty.  Tea  furnished  by  the  Dutch  East  India  Com- 
pany, and  carried  to  America  in  English  bottoms,  was  freely  sold 
there.  The  idea  suggested  itself  to  Lord  North  and  his  Royal  Master 
that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  grant  the  Company's  request.  By 
taking  oil'  the  export  duty  of  12  pence  per  pound,  and  requiring  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


183 


payment  of  only  3  pence  in  American  ports,  9  pence  per  pound  were 
gained,  and  by  so  much  cheaper  the  English  Company's  tea  could  be 
sold,  and  thus  undersell  the  foreign  Company.  The  temptation  of 
getting  their  tea  cheaper  than  before  it  was  hoped  would  blind  the 
colonists  to  the  fact  that  they  were  introducing  the  taxed  article.  It 
was  a  stupid  subterfuge,  however,  worthy  of  such  brains  as  those  of 
( reorge  III.  and  his  Premier.  Nobody  in  America  was  deceived  for  an 
instant.  The  moment  the  East  India  Company  sent  out  its  six  hun- 
dred chests  of  tea,  to  be  distributed  among  the  cities  of  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  from  Boston  to  Charleston,  the  colonists  were  on  the  alert 
for  the  arrival  of  the  ships,  and  preparing  to  prevent  the  discharge  of 
their  cargoes.  All  the  struggle  for  privileges  and  liberties  dear  by 
long  possession  and  exercise  was  concentrated  on  the  rejection  of  tea 
Openly  at  last  an  announcement  was 
made  that  on  a  certain  day  an  associa- 
tion had  been  formed  under  the  name 
and  style  of  "  The  Sons  of  Liberty." 
Five  resolutions  were  adopted  for  the 
subscription  of  members,  and  all  of 
them  called  for  patriotic  action  in  re- 
gard to  the  expected  tea.  Its  date  was 
November  11,  1773.  But  by  that  time 
there  was  in  the  city  another  organi- 
zation, "  The  Friends  of  Liberty  and 
Trade,"  of  the  more  moderate  men, 
merchants,  and  landholders,  who  did 
not  find  it  necessary  to  burn  elfigies, 
and  have  bonfires,  or  liberty-poles,  in 
order  to  show  their  determination  to 
uphold  American  liberty.  The  Sons  of 
Liberty,  who  were  of  the  more  boister- 
ous and  less  responsible  class,  appealed  to  the  more  dignified  rival 
body,  to  unite  with  them  on  the  tea-question,  and  of  course  they  did. 
Three  merchants  of  New  York,  Henry  White,  Abraham  Lott.  and  Mr. 
Benjamin,  having  received  the  appointment  of  Commissioners  for  the 
sale  of  the  English  Company's  tea,  they  were  waited  on  by  a  com- 
mittee of  these  associations,  and  as  a  result  they  declined  to  handle 
the  tea  at  all  if  liable  to  duty.  Governor  Tryon,  who  was  now  in  the 
chair,  proclaimed  that  in  order  to  prevent  trouble,  and  out  of  respect 
to  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  he  would  receive  the  tea  in  the  fort, 
and  leave  it  there  undisturbed,  until  satisfactory  measures  could  be 
taken  for  its  distribution.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  this 
proposition  was  at  once  rejected,  for  it  was  seen  that  if  landed  any- 
where the  duty  on  it  would  have  been  paid,  and  the  people  would  get 
taxed  tea  without  knowing  it.  This  meeting  was  held  on  December 
16,  1773,  the  very  date  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party.   It  was  not  till  April 


184 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


is.  1774,  that  the  first  tea-ship  arrived  in  New  York  Harbor.  As  fate 
would  have  it,  now  thai  trouble  was  again  at  hand,  Colden  was  also 
again  at  the  head  of  affairs,  Tryon  having  sailed  to  England  April  7, 
on  a  leave  of  absence  on  account  of  ill  health,  to  be  gone  about  four- 
teen months.  The  ship  carrying  the  tea  was  the  Nancy,  Captain 
Lockyer.  The  pilot  refused  to  bring  her  through  the  Narrows  until 
the  Sons  of  Liberty  were  heard  from.  They  permitted  the  captain  to 
bring  his  ship  up  to  the  city,  but  not  to  enter  it  at  the  custom  house. 
The  Nancy  was  therefore  laid  alongside  of  Murray's  wharf  at  the 
foot  of  Wall  Street.  The  captain  came  ashore,  w  as  conducted  courte- 
ously to  the  consignees,  aud  learned  from  them  that  they  would  not 
receive  the  cargo.  He  then  made  preparations  for  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, the  date  for  which  was  set  on  April  29,  and  a  program  of  cere- 
monies arranged  fitly  to  celebrate  the  happy  result  so  peacefully  se- 
cured. But  on  the  very  day  appointed  another  tea-ship  had  come 
into  harbor,  the  London.  Captain  Chambers.  He  had  told  the  pilot 
he  had  no  tea  aboard,  and  hence  the  London  had  been  permitted 
to  enter.  But  it  Avas  not  easy  to  deceive  the  "  eternal  vigilance  "  of 
the  Sons  of  Liberty.  They  had  certain  information  thai  tea  was 
aboard  the  London.  Owners  and  captain  were  summoned  to  ap- 
pear before  an  investigating  committee,  and  then  it  came  out  that 
Chambers  had  eighteen  cases  of  tea  on  board  as  a  private  speculation. 
This  afforded  a  chance  for  a  repetition  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party:  in 
the  evening  a  number  of  Liberty  Boys  boarded  the  offending  ship, 
found  1  he  tea  cases,  broke  them  open,  and  gave  the  tea  in  a  summary 
way  to  the  waters  of  the  river.  Although  the  next  day,  April  30,  was 
a  Sunday,  the  ceremonies  intended  to  grace  the  departure  of  Captain 
Lockyer  and  the  Nancy  were  now  carried  out.  He  was  conducted 
from  the  Merchants'  Coffee  House  on  Wall  and  Queen  (Pearl)  streets, 
down  Wall  to  Murray's  wharf;  as  he  stepped  into  his  boat,  cheers 
were  given  and  guns  tired,  and  all  this  occurring  before  nine  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  the  church  services  were  not  disturbed.  It  was  duly 
reported  in  the  evening  by  a  com  mi  t  tee  of  observa!  ion  at  Sandy  Hook, 
that  the  Nancy  had  cleared  that  point  and  was  well  out  at  sea. 
The  work  of  rejecting  taxed  tea  was  therefore  thoroughly  done  at 
New  York.  The  New  England  historians  must  be  of  an  amazing  state 
of  mind,  when  they  carefully  note  how  the  tea-ships  were  treated  at 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Charleston,  and  have  not  a  word  to  say 
about  this  city.  Even  Professor  Fiske  is  guilty  of  this  inexcusable 
wantonness  of  historic  unfairness. 

.Matters  were  now  rapidly  hurrying  on  toward  independence.  The 
King  wanted  a  test  of  obedience,  and  he  staked  the  issue  on  tea.  The 
duty  would  have  brought  in  a  mere  pittance  as  revenue  to  England; 
it  would  have  cost  the  Americans  a  mere  bagatelle  as  tax.  But  it  was 
not  a  question  of  money  now.  and  never  had  been.  Committees  of 
Correspondence  had  been  established  in  New  England  and  Virginia. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


1S5 


On  May  12,  1774,  news  came  to  New  York  of  the  passage  of  the  Hus- 
ton Port  Bill  by  the  ship  Samson,  after  a  record-breaking  voyage 
of  only  twenty-seven  days  from  London,  thus  strikingly  supporting 
the  old  adage  that  bad  news  travels  fast.  On  May  11,  the  "  Sons  of 
Liberty  "  and  "  Friends  of  Liberty  and  Trade  "  were  assembled  in 
mass-meeting  in  the  Exchange  on  Broad  Street,  Fraunce's  Tavern 
hard  by  being  too  small  for  them.  Isaac  Low  was  made  chairman  of 
the  meeting.  Two  tickets  were  presented  for  the  appointment  of  a 
Committee  of  Correspondence.  The  "  Sons  "  had  twenty-five  names; 
the  "  Friends,"  i.e.,  the  merchants,  had  these  and  twenty-rive  more. 
Some  warm  debate  followed  the  double  presentation,  but  the  larger 
committee  was  elected,  and  one  name  added  later,  making  a  "  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty-one  "  of  the  New  York  Corresponding  Committee. 
Three  days  later  a  character  destined  to  become  picturesque  in  the 
history  both  of  American  Independence  and  its  literature,  came  to 
New  York.  This  was  Paul  Kevere,  a  continental  post-rider,  who  came 
with  dispatches  from  the  Boston  Sons  of  Liberty  to  those  of  New 
York  and  Philadelphia.  They  referred  to  measures  to  be  taken  in 
concert  throughout  the  colonies  in  resentment  for  the  despotic  clos- 
ing of  the  port  of  Boston  as  the  punishment  for  her  Tea  Party.  The 
whole  country  was  soon  aflame. 
The  precedent  of  the  Stamp  Act 
Congress  led  to  the  calling  of 
another  to  consider  measures  ex- 
pedient under  the  increasing  mis- 
understanding between  home  coun- 
try and  colonies.  Massachusetts 
sent  out  the  invitation  for  a  con- 
gress of  deputies  to  meet  at  Phila- 
delphia in  September,  1771.  She 
appointed  five  delegates.  On  July 
4,  auspicious  date,  New  York  patri- 
ots were  in  excited  session,  the  two 
parties  again  in  conflict,  yet  acting 
as  beneficial  balance-wheels  to  each 
other.  They  chose  as  New  York's 
deputies  five  men :  three  merchants, 
Philip  Livingston,  John  Alsop,  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty- 
one,  and  Isaac  Low;  and  two  lawyers,  James  Duane,  afterward 
Mayor,  and  John  Jay,  a  name  destined  to  become  illustrious. 
Jay  was  the  eighth  son  of  Peter  Jay  and  Mary  Van  Cortlandt. 
Peter  was  the  son  of  Augustus  Jay,  the  founder  of  the  family 
in  America,  who  was  a  prosperous  merchant  of  New  York,  with 
a  country-seat  at  New  Rochelle.  Augustus  Jay  had  married  the 
daughter  of  Balthazar  Bayard.    Thus  John  Jay  was  thoroughly 


AUGUSTUS  JAY. 


186 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


identified  with  the  best  life  in  the  city,  of  intermingled  Huguenot 
and  Dutch  blood.  He  was  born  in  174(5,  graduated  from  King's 
(Columbia)  College  in  1704.  was  now  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  a 
bridegroom,  having  recently  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  William 
Livingston,  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  an  ardent  patriot:  thus  in 
another  way  linking  himself  with  a  prominent  colonial  New  York 
family,  for  William  was  of  the  numerous  Livingston  clan,  though  in 
official  connection  with  New  Jersey. 

The  Congress  met  in  Philadelphia  at  Carpenters'  Hall  on  Septem- 
ber 5,  1774.  Jay  had  left  without  any  demonstration  on  August  LHJ. 
The  remaining  four  deputies  took  their  departure  on  September  1 
attended  to  the  ferry  by  a  great  crowd,  carrying  flags,  and  with  bands 
of  music.  John  Adams  and  the  other  New  England  deputies  passing 
through  New  York  City  were  also  enthusiastically  cheered  on  their 
way.  The  Congress  of  1774  did  much  the  same  work  as  that  of  1  765. 
A  declaration  of  rights  was  prepared  and  issued;  a  non-importation 
agreement  was  again  recommended.  On  October  2(i  it  dissolved,  but 
in  expiring  it  provided  for  a  resurrection  which  meant  the  beginning 
of  independence  and  national  life.  It  was  voted  to  provide  in  each 
colony  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  another  Congress  to  meet  on 
May  14,  177.").  By  that  time  the  die  had  been  cast,  the  appeal  to  arms 
made,  and  thereafter  union  among  the  colonies  would  be  necessary 
not  only  to  arrange  commercial  tactics,  but  to  secure  the  independ- 
ence of  a  nascent  nation. 

The  presence  of  the  troops  in  New  York  had  not  mended  the  situa- 
tion but  rather  aggravated  it,  and  introduced  the  elements  of  vio- 
lence and  bloodshed.  There  was  a  constant  and  tierce  feud  between 
the  citizens  and  the  troops.  It  began  with  the  sacking  of  Major 
James's  house  on  November  1, 17(55.  The  guard  there  belonged  to  the 
royal  artillery  regiment,  and  they  had  to  fly  ignomiuiously  before 
the  mob  to  save  their  lives.  This  disgrace  rankled  in  their  breasts  and 
was  shared  by  the  entire  regiment,  no  doubt  fomented  by  an  abun- 
dance of  taunts.  In  December.  17(55,  an  imperious  demand  was  made 
by  the  British  government  upon  the  New  York  Assembly  to  provide 
free  quarters  for  as  many  troops  as  the  ministry  might  choose  to  send 
over;  and  to  supply  them  besides  with  firewood,  bedding,  drink,  soap, 
and  candles.  The  Assembly  as  peremptorily  refused;  for  troops  on 
the  march  it  would  provide  quarters,  but  then  only  after  an  estimate 
of  the  cost.  It  was  for  persisting  in  this  refusal  that  the  Assembly 
was  disfranchised,  as  told  on  a  previous  page.  Such  arbitrary  de- 
mands and  condign  punishment  on  account  of  the  troops,  were  sure 
to  result  in  collisions  between  the  citizens  and  soldiers  in  town.  The 
first  occurred  on  the  night  of  July  21,  17(5(5.  Four  officers  who  had 
been  indulging  too  freely  in  liquor  at  one  of  the  taverns  in  Broadway 
opposite  the  Commons,  started  out  for  a  lark,  breaking  the  street 
lamps  as  they  went.    Pretty  soon  thirty-four  lamps  along  Broadway 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


187 


toward  Wall  Street  were  in  ruins.  This  naturally  brought  the  City 
Watch  down  upon  the  officers,  and  a  lively  fray  occurred  in  which 
wounds  and  knock  down  blows  were  liberally  exchanged.  One  of  the 
officers  was  finally  arrested  and  locked  up,  whereupon  the  three 
others  summoned  the  sentinels  stationed  nearby  to  their  help,  and 
rescued  their  companion.  But  the  next  day  he  was  recognized  when 
upon  the  streets,  and  re-arrested,  and  one  of  the  others  was  also 
caught.  They  were  taken  before  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  and  com- 
pelled to  pay  for  the  lamps  and  a  heavy  fine  besides,  General  Gage, 
the  Commander-in-Chief,  facilitating  the  action  of  the  magistrates  in 
every  way. 

The  main  feature  of  these  collisions  between  the  troops  and  the 
citizens  was  the  frequent  altercations  about  the  liberty  poles.  A 
huge  mast,  called  a  Liberty  Pole,  was  first  raised  by  the  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty at  the  enthusiastic  celebration  of  the  King's  birthday  on  June 
1,  17GG,  after  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  It  stood  on  a  spot  in  the 
Commons  opposite  the  block  between  Chambers  and  Warren  streets. 
A  large  number  of  soldiers  were  quartered  in  the  barracks  running  in 
a  line  across  the  northern  end  of  the  Commons,  where  Chambers  Street 
is  noAV.  As  the  pole  was  raised  to  celebrate  the  triumph  of  the  Ameri- 
cans in  forcing  the  repeal,  it  was  peculiarly  annoying  to  the  soldiers, 
and  any  injury  to  the  pole  was  sure  to  exasperate  the  people  of  the 
town.  After  the  fracas  of  July  21,  out  of  which  the  officers  came 
rather  badly,  the  soldiers  planned  revenge  by  cutting  down  the  Lib- 
erty Pole.  This  was  done  on  the  night  of  Sunday,  August  10,  but  not 
without  being  opposed  by  a  crowd  of  citizens  who  had  got  wind  of  the 
purposed  outrage.  A  battle  royal  was  fought,  with  brickbats  and 
sticks  on  one  side,  and  bayonets  on  the  other,  and  many  persons  were 
hurt.  The  soldiers  who  had  done  the  act  belonged  to  the  28th  regi- 
ment, then  in  barracks.  On  August  12,  the  Sons  of  Liberty  had 
another  pole  up,  flying  the  colors,  and  bearing  the  device  "  George, 
Pitt,  and  Liberty."  The  soldiers  of  the  28th  were  arraigned  before 
the  Mayor,  and  bail  demanded  for  future  good  behavior.  But  on  the 
night  of  September  23,  the  second  Liberty  Pole  was  cut  down,  but  so 
.  secretly  that  the  act  could  not  be  surely  traced  to  the  soldiers.  The 
third  pole  was  erected  the  next.  day.  It  lasted  till  the  celebration  of 
the  first  anniversary  of  the  repeal,  March  18,  17l>7,  going  the  way  of 
the  others  a  day  or  two  later.  Presumably  the  soldiers  had  perpe- 
trated the  act,  but  no  one  saw  them  do  it.  A  fourth  pole  was  set  up 
promptly  the  following  day.  It  was  larger  than  the  others,  and 
bound  with  iron  bands  far  up  from  the  bottom.  Three  nights  later 
gunpowder  was  applied  where  the  ax  could  do  no  execution,  but  it 
did  not  work.  Now  precautions  were  taken  to  frustrate  the  outrage. 
A  watch  was  set  in  a  tavern  near  by  and  when  a  party  of  soldiers 
were  seen  to  approach  the  pole,  they  were  soon  driven  away.  The 
authorities  of  the  city  and  of  the  province  also  interfered  seriously. 


188 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


and  for  a  few  years  the  liberty  pole  was  left  at  rest.  In  1770.  however, 
the  conflict  broke  out  afresh.  Another  regiment  was  now  in  the  bar- 
racks, the  16th  having  superseded  the  28th.  The  new  occupants  took 
up  the  traditions  of  the  former  regiment,  aud  began  their  attempts 
to  destroy  the  pole  on  .January  13,  1770.  They  failed  and  theu 
marched  into  a  tavern  on  Broadway  kept  by  one  J. a  Montague  oppo- 
site the  Fields,  breaking  the  windows.  Four  attempts  followed  the 
other,  and  finally,  on  January  10.  the  pole  was  destroyed  and  its  pieces 
piled  up  in  front  of  Montague's  tavern.  An  indiguatiou  meeting  was 
held  in  the  Commons  on  January  17.  at  which  three  thousand  peo- 
ple were  present.  The  soldiers  were  roundly  denounced,  and  declared 
to  be  public  enemies.  The  citizens  asked  leave  of  the  Mayor  and  Cor- 
poration to  erect  another  pole  in  place  of  the  one  destroyed.  But  it 
w  as  feared  that  it  would  ouly  give  rise  to  more  disturbances,  and  the 
petition  was  denied.  The  Sons  of  Liberty  Avere  ready  for  the  emer- 
gency: they  found  that  a  strip  of  land  in  the  Commons,  11  x  100,  was 
private  property.  It  was  at  once  purchased,  and  upon  this  was  erect- 
ed, not  far  from  the  former  site,  a  fifth  liberty  pole,  consisting  of  two 
sections,  a  mast  forty-six  feet  high  and  a  topmast  twenty-two  feet. 
It  bore  a  gilt  vane  with  the  word  "  Liberty  "  inscribed  upon  it.  The 
soldiers  did  not  interfere  with  its  erection.  But  on  March  2i  trouble 
again  broke  out  on  account  of  the  pole.  A  party  of  fifteen  soldiers 
were  seen  by  some  boys  attempting  to  unship  the  topmast  aud  take 
off  the  vane.  They  spread  the  news  and  soon  the  Sons  of  Liberty 
rushed  in  hot  haste  to  the  Commons  to  defend  their  trophy.  The  sol- 
diers drove  them  off  and  they  sought  shelter  in  their  tavern,  Hampden 
Hall.  The  bell  of  St.  Paul's  chapel  now  rang  an  alarm,  and  the  sol- 
diers thought  it  prudent  to  retire  to  their  barracks,  where  their 
colonel  kept  watch  for  the  remainder  of  the  night.  The  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty determined  to  disappoint  the  boast  of  the  men  of  the  Kith  to 
carry  a  portion  of  the  pole  with  them  when  they  left  the  city.  Their 
departure  having  been  fixed  for  May  3,  a  guard  of  Liberty  Boys  stir- 
rounded  the  pole  every  night  until  that  date.  The  Kith  was  succeeded 
by  the  26th  regiment,  and  no  further  trouble  was  had  about  the  lib- 
erty pole,  for  the  conduct  of  the  new  regiment  was  so  exemplary  as  to 
win  Hie  praise  instead  of  the  resent  men t  of  the  citizens. 

It  was  due  to  the  animosity  awakened  by  the  offensive  conduct  of 
the  L6th  that  New  York  must  be  accorded  the  honor  of  precedence  to 
Boston,  in  spite  of  its  much  famed  "  .Massacre,"  for  the  first  blood 
shed  and  first  life  sacrificed  in  the  cause  of  independence.  The  Bos- 
ton "Massacre"  took  place  in  .March.  1770;  the  New  York  "  Massa- 
cre," of  quite  as  portentous  a  nature  as  to  numbers  involved,  took 
place  on  January  IS,  1770,  on  Golden  Hill,  the  part  of  John  Street 
between  William  and  Cliff.  This  was  the  next  day  after  the  great 
meeting  in  the  "  Fields,"  at  which  the  soldiers  were  declared  to  be 
public  enemies.    In  response  to  this  severe  aspersion,  the  soldiers  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


IS!) 


the  lGth  prepared  a  placard,  exalting  their  own  character  and  ser- 
vices, and  full  of  taunts  and  flings  at  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  even  going 
so  far  as  to  call  them  rebels.  At  the  bottom  was  printed :  "  Signed  by 
the  16th  Eegiment  of  Foot."  While  a  party  of  three  soldiers  were  en- 
gaged posting  this  placard,  the  resolute  Captain  Sears  ("King 
Sears")  and  another  Liberty  Boy,  Walter  (.{naekenbos,  came  upon 
them.  Sears  seized  one  and  Quackenbos  another,  and  when  the  third 
soldier  advanced  upon  Sears  with  his  bayonet,  the  latter  hurled  into 
his  face  the  first  object  upon  which  he  could  lay  his  hands,  and  with 
such  force  that  he  reeled  back.  The  two  patriots  conducted  their  cap- 
tives to  the  Mayor's  oftice  at  the  City  Hall.  Before  they  reached  it 
twenty  soldiers  had  collected  and  prepared  to  rescue  their  comrades, 
but  citizens  in  abundance  had  also  flocked  together,  and  a  battle  was 
imminent.  At  this  juncture  Mayor  Hicks  appeared  and  ordered  the 
soldiers  to  retire  to  their  barracks.  Thev  moved  in  the  direction  of 
Chambers  Street,  but  when  they 
had  gone  as  far  as  John  Street, 
they  met  a  larger  party  led  by  one 
who  pretended  to  be  an  officer  in 
disguise.  A  halt  was  made  at  the 
corner  of  William  and  John 
streets,  and  the  command  given 
to  charge  upon  the  people  down 
the  slope  called  Golden  Hill,  to- 
ward Pearl  Street.  The  citizens 
had  nothing  but  stakes  wrenched 
from  some  sleighs  or  wagons 
standing  near,  the  soldiers  had 
their  bayonets  and  side-arms.  No 
bullets  seem  to  have  been  fired, 
but  in  the  fray  some  very  serious 
wounds  were  given.  Sailors  from 
the  merchant  vessels  were  always 
ready  to  fight  on  the  side  of  the 
citizens,  and  one  of  these  sturdy  fellows  received  a  thrust  from 
which  he  died.  Another  man  "  got  his  skull  cut  in  the  most  cruel 
manner,"  of  which  probably  he  died  also,  making  two  martyrs 
to  the  cause  of  liberty.  The  soldiers  were  pretty  badly  cut  up  also, 
figuratively  as  well  as  literally  speaking,  and  as  the  citizens  kept  in- 
creasing in  numbers,  completely  surrounding  them  upon  the  hill,  it 
might  have  gone  very  hard  with  them,  had  not  a  detachment  of  their 
comrades  come  up  in  the  rear  of  the  crowd.  As  they  were  about  to 
charge  and  penetrate  to  the  rescue,  a  party  of  officers  appeared  on  the 
scene,  and  ordered  the  soldiers  back  to  the  barracks,  the  people  open- 
ing their  ranks  to  let  them  through.  The  next  day  two  conflicts  took 
place,  one  on  the  Commons  in  front  of  the  new  jail,  and  the  other  in 


MAYOR  WHITEHEAD  HICKS. 


190 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Chapel  Street  (West  Broadway),  near  Barclay,  lives  were  lost  in 
these  affrays,  however.  "  W'e  arc  all  in  confusion  in  this  city."  wrote 
a  citizen  of  New  5Tork  to  a  friend  in  London,  on  .January  1770,  "  on 
Friday  last  (18th)  was  an  engagement  .  .  .  when  much  blood 
was  spilt,  one  sailor  got  run  through  the  body,  who  since  died:  on 
Saturday  (19th)  the  Hall  Bell  rang  for  an  alarm,  when  was  another 
battle.    .    .    .    What  will  be  the  end  of  this  God  knows!  " 

Out  of  the  disaffection  between  citizens  and  troops  also  grew  an 
interesting  case  bearing  on  the  freedom  of  the  press.  Just  a  month 
before  the  Golden  Hill  affair  the  Assembly,  at  Colden's  instance,  and 
by  some  sudden  and  unaccountable  impulse  of  compliance,  had  voted 
the  supplies  for  the  troops  so  often  refused.  It  roused  the  anger  of 
the  citizens  to  the  highest,  pitch.  There  appeared  in  one  of  the  jour- 
nals of  tin1  day  an  article  entitled  "  To  the  betrayed  inhabitants  of  the 
City  and  Colony  of  New  York,"  in  which  the  Assembly  w  as  openly 
accused  of  having  betrayed  the  common  cause  of  liberty.  The  mem- 
bers were  also  challenged  to  appear  at  a  meeting  in  the  fields  set  for 
December  18,  when  they  would  learn  what  their  constituents  thought 
of  them.  At  that  meeting  resolutions  denunciatory  of  the  Assembly 
were  adopted.  The  Provincial  Council  offered  a  reward  of  one  huu- 
dred  pounds  for  the  discovery  of  the  author  of  the  paper,  and  John 
Lamb,  secretary  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  and  member  of  the  Assembly 
was  summoned  by  the  latter  body  to  the  bar  of  the  House.  He  was 
dismissed,  as  he  claimed  his  action  at  the  meeting  was  not  based  on 
the  paper  declared  to  be  "  an  infamous  and  scandalous  libel."  Next, 
James  Parker,  the  printer  of  the  Gazette  and  Post  Hon.  was  ar- 
rested, and  upon  information  elicited  from  him  by  Coldeu  and  the 
Council,  Alexander  McDougal,  one  of  the  most  turbulent  spirits 
among  the  Liberty  Hoys,  was  arrested  as  the  author  of  the  "infa- 
mous" article.  He  refused  to  give  bail  and  was  confined  in  the  new- 
jail  on  the  Commons,  the  presen;  Hall  of  Kecords.  He  was  called  the 
American  Wilkes,  and  as  the  hitter's  offending  criticisms  of  the  King 
had  appeared  in  No.  45  of  the  North  liritain,  that  figure  became 
prominent  also  in  McDougal's  case.  The  prisoner  held  regular  recep- 
tions at  the  jail  every  afternoon  between  the  hours  of  three  and  six. 
On  March  18,  1770,  another  anniversary  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act,  forty-five  toasts  were  drank  to  W  ilkes  and  McDougal  at  the 
Hampden  Mall,  a  tavern  put  up  on  ground  purchased  for  that  pur- 
pose by  the  Sons  of  Liberty  opposite  the  Commons,  upon  the  site  <>f 
the  recent  Herald  building.  After  the  banquet  the  company 
marched  over  to  the  jail  and  gave  McDougal  forty-five  cheers.  Tin1 
day  happened  to  be  Hie  forty-fifth  of  his  imprisonment.  His  case  lin- 
gered along  for  over  a  year,  part  of  which  time,  from  April  to  Decem- 
ber, he  was  out  on  bail.  In  December,  1770.  he  was  summoned  to  the 
bar  of  the  Assembly ;  he  refused  to  answer  and  was  commit  ted  to  jail 
for  contempt.    On  April  17,  1771,  he  was  finally  released  from  jail  on 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


191 


demand  of  his  counsel,  John  Morin  ►Scott,  upon  his  own  recognizance. 

Among  the  many  meetings  called  in  order  to  take  action  in  concert 
with  the  other  colonies  to  manifest  their  detestation  of  the  Boston 
Port  Bill  must  not  be  forgotten  one  held  in  the  Fields  on  July  6,  1774. 
It  will  be  remembered  that,  on  July  4,  five  delegates  had  been  elected 
to  represent  New  York  at  the  Colonial  Congress  called  to  meet  in 
Philadelphia  in  September.  But  there  had  been  some  friction  be- 
tween the  more  violent  and  the  more  moderate  spirits,  and  to  secure 
final  harmony  a  meeting  of  citizens  was  called  to  assemble  at  the  City 
Hall  on  the  7th  at  noon  "  to  concur  in  the  "nomination  or  choose 
others."  The  more  aggressive  party,  led  by  Sears  and  McDougall,  is- 
sued a  call  the  next  day  (5th)  for  a  mass  meeting  on  the  Commons  on 
July  G,  and  at  this  open  air  assembly  McDougall,  the  American 
Wilkes,  presided.  The  people  were  treated  to  a  genuine  surprise. 
After  several  addresses  had  been  made, 
they  beheld  the  slight  figure  of  a  boy 
making  his  way  to  the  speakers'  stand. 
It  was  a  piece  of  immense  audacity,  and 
no  wonder  the  bold  boy  was  a  little  em- 
barrassed as  he  began  to  speak.  But  to 
the  amazement  of  the  audience  the  em- 
barrassment soon  changed  into  the  ease 
and  confidence  of  the  practiced  orator. 
Words  of  eloquence,  closely  packed  with 
thought,  reason,  and  logic,  at  white  heat, 
marked  even  that  maiden  speech,  as  it 
marked  the  thinking  and  speaking  of 
that  remarkable  boy  all  through  his 
eventful  life.  He  was  recognized  as  an 
attendant  at  King's  College;  "  it  is  a  col- 
legian, it  is  a  collegian,"  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth.  And  it  was: 
it  Avas  no  less  an  individual  than  Alexander  Hamilton,  then  just 
about  seventeen  years  of  age. 

In  the  midst  of  the  events  and  agitations  that  were  preparing  the 
people  of  New  York,  along  with  those  of  the  other  colonies,  finally  to 
assert  and  battle  for  their  independence,  the  newspapers  of  the  city 
played  an  important  part.  There  were  three  that  were  published 
regularly  through  the  period  now'  in  hand.  The  New  York  Gazette 
and  Weekly  Post  Boy  was  printed  and  edited  by  John  Holt.  It 
served  the  cause  of  the  patriots  consistently,  publishing  the  boldest 
attacks  on  the  measures  of  oppression.  In  1774  Holt  adopted  as  a  de- 
vice on  the  first  page  of  the  paper  he  then  published  a  snake  broken 
into  pieces,  with  the  motto  beneath  "  Unite  or  Die,"'  derived  from  the 
cut  in  Franklin's  Philadelphia  paper  when  he  was  advocating  union 
against  the  French  and  Indians  in  1754.  In  1775  Holt  printed  the  cut 
with  the  pieces  united.    Huge  Gaine,  of  Hanover  Square,  still  con- 


ALEXANDER  McDOUGALL. 


192 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tinned  his  New  York  Mercury,  in  which  the  Tories  sometimes 
found  a  vent  for  their  ideas,  but  its  columns  were  open  also  to  the 
Sons  of  Liberty.  In  1706  James  Parker,  who  had  taken  over  the  Ga- 
zette from  Bradford  as  far  back  as  1743.  resumed  its  publication,  and 
Iiolt  started  the  New  York  Journal,  or  General  .h/rcc/iw,  winch 
was  again  consolidated  with  Parker's  Gazette j  w  hereupon  the 
Journal  appeared  as  a  separate  publication.  The  most  notable  ar- 
ticles published  in  these  exciting  days  were  those  signed  "  Freeman," 
by  John  Morin  Scott.  A  series  of  letters  in  the  Gazette  and  Post 
Boy  ou  Liberty  were  signed  "  Sentinel,''  and  were  also  attributed 
tn  Scott,  or  Livingston,  or  William  Smith,  but  they  were  inferior  to 
the  others.  Dr.  Myles  Cooper.  President  of  King's  (Columbia)  College, 
tried  to  set  the  colonists  of  New  York  right  on  their  duties  to  the 
home  government  in  a  number  of  ponderous  articles  in  the  news- 
papers. To  his  astonishment  they  were  not  only  answered  bu1  com- 
pletely refuted  by  some  writer  of  the  patriot  party.  It  is  not  know  n 
whether  he  ever  learned  that  his  brilliant  opponent  was  none  other 
than  that  precocious  boy  in  his  college,  Alexander  Hamilton. 

The  churches  were  just  pouring  forth  their  audiences  at  noon  of 
Sunday,  April  23,  1775,  when  the  devout  frame  of  mind  of  the  wor- 
shipers was  very  much  upset  by  a  rumor  that  they  found  circulating 
among  the  people  who  had  not  been  in  church.  It  was  said  t  hat  a  bat- 
tle had  been  fought  between  English  soldiers  and  New  England  mili- 
tia, or  "minute  men,"  four  days  before,  on  Wednesday,  April  11),  at 
Lexington  and  Concord.  There  was  not  much  sleep  the  night  follow- 
ing such  a  rumor,  we  may  be  sure,  and  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning 
of  Monday,  April  24,  the  express  from  Boston  with  the  official  infor- 
mation, found  Isaac  Low,  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Observation, 
awake  and  ready  to  sign  his  dispatches,  and  to  pass  him  on  upon  his 
way  to  Philadelphia,  Prompt  action  was  taken  on  the  basis  that  the 
revolution  had  now  been  begun,  and  that  a  new  order  of  things  must 
prevail  in  the  city.  On  May  1  a  "  committee  of  one  hundred  "  w  as 
chosen,  with  Isaac  Low  in  the  chair,  to  take  charge  of  the  municipal 
government.  Captain  Isaac  Sears  happened  to  be  under  arrest  for 
some  treasonable  language.  He  was  at  once  released.  He  was  just 
the  man  for  the  present  emergency.  The  Sons  of  Liberty,  led  by  Sears 
and  Lamb,  proceeded  to  the  City  Hall,  seized  t  he  stands  of  anus  there 
kept  for  sudden  invasions,  and  distributed  them  among  the  people. 
All  vessels  in  the  harbor  laden  witli  provisions  for  the  British  army 
were  embargoed.  The  collector  of  the  port  was  forced  to  give  up  the 
keys  of  the  custom  house.  Tin1  employees  were  dismissed,  the  build- 
ing closed,  and  the  money  and  arms  taken  into  custody.  Yet  the 
change  to  independence  was  not  yet  permanently  established  in  New 
York.  A  Provincial  Congress,  called  to  consider  the  emergency, 
which  met  mi  May  22,  was  found  to  be  decidedly  Tory  in  complexion. 
Tts  members  were  for  proposing  measures  of  conciliation  instead  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


193 


making  vigorous  preparations  for  war  in  line  with  the  other  colonies. 
On  June  28,  Governor  Tryon,  ordered  to  hasten  back  to  his  post,  ar- 
rived, superseding  Colden  for  the  last  time.  But  the  last  Colonial  As- 
sembly also  had  met,  and  afterward  it  was  formally  declared  that 
Royal  Rule  in  New  York  ended  on  April  19,  1775. 

But  few  words  will  need  to  be  added  to  complete  the  picture  of 
municipal  life  during  this  period  preparatory  to  independence,  be- 
cause, amid  the  startling  events,  we. constantly  catch  glimpses  of  the 
city,  its  streets,  its  buildings,  its  people.  We  anticipated  the  period 
of  this  chapter  in  the  last  to  complete  the  account  of  the  churches 
which  graced  the  streets  of  New  York  before  the  Revolution.  We 
must  add  that  the  Methodists  began  to  hold  services  in  the  city  in  a 
humble  way  in  a  rigging  loft  on  William  Street,  in  1766.  Two  years 
later,  on  tin-  site  of  the  present  modest  structure,  was  built  a  church 
forty-two  feet  wide  by  sixty  loug,  on  John  Street,  between  Broadway 
and  Nassau.  At  that  time  the  society  had  a  membership  of  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty.  As  late  as  1775,  on  the  very  eve  of  the  Revolution, 
the  Quakers  put  up  a  meeting-house  on  Queen  (Pearl)  Street,  near 
Oak,  a  little  above  Franklin  Square.  It  will  serve  later  to  locate  the 
precise  spot  where  John  Jacob  Astor  began  business.  It  affords  a 
curious  and  instructive  insight  into  the  composition  of  the  New  York 
population  to  observe  that  a  large 
section  of  the  inhabitants,  occu] ty- 


ing and  filling  three  of  the  largest 
and  finest  churches,  were  still  ac- 
customed to  worship  in  a  foreign 
language,  up  to  this  very  time,  and 
were  only  just  now  beginning  to 
make  arrangements  to  accommo- 
date themselves  to  their  surround- 
ings in  church-life,  as  they  already 
had  abundantly  done  in  other  direc- 
tions.   We  refer  of  course  to  the 


Dutch  congregation.  In  1761,  ex-  JOHN  street  methodist  church. 
actly  one  century  since  the  sur- 
render of  New  Amsterdam  to  the  English,  the  Consistory,  or  Board 
of  Elders  and  Deacons  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  called  their 
first  English  pastor,  the  Rev.  Archibald  Laidlie.  He  had  been  pastor 
during  four  years  of  the  Scotch  Church  iu  Flushing,  Holland,  so  that 
he  was  familiar  with  the  Dutch  language  and  customs.  There  he  had 
preached  in  English  amid  Dutch  surroundings;  here  he  was  to  do  the 
same  with  no  Dutch  surroundings  except  in  his  own  church.  In 
March,  1765,  Dominie  Laidlie  arrived,  and  on  April  15  preached  his 
inaugural  sermon  in  the  renovated  church  on  Nassau  Street.  Five 
years  later  a  young  man,  raised  in  the  Dutch  Church,  a  graduate  of 
Yale  College,  and  of  the  Theological  department  of  the  University  of 


194 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


I' tree  lit,  Holland,  was  called  as  the  second  English-speaking  pastor, 
and  the  church,  corner  of  Fulton  and  William  streets,  was  just  ready 
for  his  occupancy.  This  was  the  Rev.  I>r.  John  Henry  Livingston,  a 
scion  of  the  important  colonial  family  of  that  name.  The  name  is 
enough  to  indicate  that  he  was  favorably  affected  toward  :he  patriot 
cause.  So  were  all  the  Dutch  Reformed  pastors,  those  who  preached 
in  Dutch  as  well,  for  they  all  left  the  city  when  the  English  came  in 
to  occupy  it  in  1770.  This  cannot  be  said  of  the  Episcopal  clergymen. 
They  kept  to  the  traditions  of  their  church,  non-resistance  to  the 
crown  however  arbitrary  its  measures  and  unconstitutional  its  op 
pressions.  They  took  an  active  share  in  the  newspaper  debates 
against  the  Sons  of  Liberty. 

The  Mayors  during  this  exciting  period  were  John  Cruger,  Jr.,  and 
Whitehead  Hicks.  The  latter  assumed  the  (  hair  after  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act.  He  was  a  descendant  of  tin-  Quaker  family  of  that 
name  prominent  on  Long  Island,  and  a  lawyer  instead  of  a  merchant, 
which  was  unusual  for  New  York.  He  was  not  so  ardent  a  supporter 
of  the  movement  for  independence  as  his  predecessor,  yet  he  leaned  to 
that  cause,  and  was  not  sufficiently  friendly  to  the  home  government 
to  wish  to  remain  in  the  city  during  the  occupancy  of  the  British. 
He  ceased  to  be  Mayor  in  177(1,  and  then  retired  to  a  farm  or  country- 
seat  at  Bayside,  L.  I.,  where  he  died  in  L780,  at  the  comparatively 
early  age  of  fifty-two  years.  He  seems  to  have  made  no  resistance  to 
the  temporary  charge  of  municipal  affairs  taken  by  the  Committee 
of  One  Hundred  in  177.").  His  term  was  signalized  by  one  achieve- 
ment for  peace  and  compassion,  amid  such  a  multitude  which  wen- 
warlike  and  bitter.  The  cornerstone  of  the  New  York  Hospital  was 
laid  on  September  2,  1773,  by  Governor  Tryon.  The  site  is  familiar 
to  New  Yorkers  of  middle  age,  between  Duane  and  Anthony  mow 
Thomas)  streets  on  Broadway.  Tlx'  walls  were  up  and  roof  and  in- 
terior nearly  completed,  when  a  lire  completely  gutted  the  building. 
During  the  Revolution  in  this  its  incomplete  state  it  afforded  good 
barracks  for  the  troops;  after  the  war  the  construction  was  carried  on 
as  originally  planned,  and  the  edifice  was  first  opened  as  a  hospital 
in  1791. 

John  Adams,  on  his  way  to  Philadelphia  in  1774  to  attend  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  was  astonished  at  the  evidences  of  luxury  he  had 
discovered  in  New  York.  There  were  indeed  several  people  of  the 
kind  classified  by  Carlyle  as  keeping  a  "gig."  In  1770  twenty-six 
New  York  families  possessed  coaches  of  the  same  elaborate  pattern 
as  that  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Colden's,  which  graced  the  torchlight 
procession  of  November  1.  17<i.~>.  and  then  became  a  prey  to  the  flames 
on  Bowling  Green.  Thirty-three  persons  were  able  to  keep  a  chariot 
or  post-chaise,  of  less  pretentious  proportions,  but  still  elegant,  and 
indicating  wealth.  Twenty-six  again,  still  of  comfortable  competence, 

owned  phaetons,  which  were  two-wheeled  vehicles  in  those  days,  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


195 


more  like  the  typical  "  gig."  Yet  people  lived  simply  even  where 
there  was  wealth.  The  gentleman  of  the  household  in  person  visited 
the  markets  before  breakfast,  and  ordered  the  meats  and  vegetables 
for  the  day's  dinner.  The  dinner  hour  was  from  1  to  3  o'clock,  becom- 
ing later  with  the  influx  of  English  customs  to  suit  the  officers  quar- 
tered in  the  city.  Tea  was  in  the  early  evening,  which  might  be  sup- 
plemented by  a  social  supper  among  a  number  of  friends  at  the  tavern 
or  hotel  to  which  they  were  accustomed  to  repair  for  the  exchange  of 
news,  an  important  matter  in  the  scarcity  of  newspapers.  On  June 
15,  1768,  some  one  wrote  to  England  complaining  of  the  weather. 
"  So  uncertain  is  this  climate,  that  in  the  morning  you  may  wear  a 
suit  of  cloathes,  at  noon  sit  in  your  shirt  with  windows  and  doors 
open,  and  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day  wrap  yourselves  up  in  a  fur 
cloak."  Even  then  Philadelphia  was  "  slow  "  compared  with  New 
York,  for  the  same  gentleman  wrote:  "  This  is  a  better  place  for  com- 
pany and  amusements  than  Philadelphia;  more  gay  and  lively.  I 
have  already  seen  some  pretty  women."  Yet  to  a  European  life  was 
dull  even  at  New  York.  "  With  regard  to  the  people,  manner,  living, 
and  conversation,  one  day  shows  you  as  much  as  fifty.  There  are  no 
diversions  at  all  at  present.  The  plays  are  over.  .  .  .  You  may 
tell  my  sister  that  I  get  acquainted  with  families,  and  drink  tea,  and 
play  at  cards,  and  go  about  to  assemblies  [receptions],  dancing  min- 
uets." 

The  interests  of  commerce  were  so  closely  linked  with  the  progress 
of  political  events  that  the  picture  of  life  in  that  sphere  is  pretty  well 
complete.  Yet  it  is  worth  while  stopping  to  note  one  year  amid  all 
the  rest  when  trade  seemed  brisk  and  the  pressure  of  politics  was 
lifted  from  its  operations.  This  was  in  1768.  The  exports  that  year 
were  principally  bread,  peas,  rye,  sheep,  beef,  pork,  meal,  corn,  horses, 
and  eighty  thousand  barrels  of  flour.  With  Hamburg  and  Holland  a 
trade  was  carried  on  in  which  £246,522  were  handled.  The  ships  that 
entered  the  harbor  in  1770  numbered  one  hundred  and  ninety-six; 
sloops,  four  hundred  and  thirty-one;  ships  cleared,  one  hundred  and 
eighty-eight;  sloops,  four  hundred  and  twenty-four.  But  an  event  of 
prime  importance  was  the  foundation  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
in  this  same  year.  On  April  8,  1768,  twenty-four  merchants  engaged 
in  foreign  trade  met  in  the  Long  Room  at  the  Queen's  Head,  later 
Fraunce's  Tavern,  corner  of  Broad  and  Dock  (Pearl)  streets,  and 
formed  an  association  under  the  name  and  style  of  "  The  New  York 
Chamber  of  Commerce  "  ;  ex-Mayor  John  Cruger  was  elected  Presi- 
dent, and  Elias  Desbrosses,  Treasurer.  On  March  13,  1770,  a  charter 
was  granted  by  Lieutenant-Governor  Colden.  "  This,"  writes  John 
Austin  Stevens,  its  secretary  for  many  years,  and  its  historian;  "  this 
was  the  first  mercantile  society  formed  in 'the  colonies,  and  the  mod- 
est beginning  of  the  important  institution  which  has  since  maintained 
its  organization  without  break,  and  to-day  has  a  membership  of  one 


196 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


thousand  of  our  principal  merchants,  and  the  finest  gallery  of  mer- 
chant portraits  on  the  American  continent." 

The  population  of  the  city  was  put  at  twenty  thousand  in  17GS.  It 
remained  about,  the  same  up  to  the  Revolution.  The  streets  were  be- 
ginning to  be  laid  out  on  the  west  side  of  Broadway  beyonu  the  Com- 
mons (City  Hall  Park).  One  block  of  Beade  was  graded,  and  about 
the  same  extent  of  Duane,  the  Hospital  standing  quite  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  town,  and  overlooking  the  Fresh  Water  Pond  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill  sloping  rapidly  down  east  of  Broadway.  Along  the  Bowery 
road  quite  a  network  of  streets  are  seen  in  1782  (on  paper  mostly) 
between  Bayard  on  the  south  and  Hester  on  the  north,  extending 
eastward  toward  Division  Street  or  East  Broadway.  Chatham 
Square  is  quite  deserted  as  yet,  but  there  are  streets  laid  out  as  far  as 
Mott,  west,  and  James,  east,  of  Park  Row.  The  streets  iu  the  more 
populated  portions  were  lighted  at  night  by  means  of  lamps  and 
lamp-posts  put  up  and  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  city. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


IN  THE   HANDS  OF  THE  ENEMY. 

f 

HE  discbarge  of  Major  Pitcairn's  pistols  011  the  green  of  Lex- 
ington had  sounded  the  signal  for  the  uprising  of  a  nation. 
"  From  the  19th  of  April,  1775,"  said  a  speaker  on  its  first 
anniversary,  "  will  be  dated  the  liberty  of  the  American 
world."  The  news  of  that  great  occurrence,  as  we  saw  in  the  previous 
chapter,  reached  New  York  on  Sunday,  April  23.  The  dispatch  car- 
ried by  the  express-rider  was  dated  at  Watertown,  Wednesday  morn- 
ing, near  10  o'clock.  It  read:  "  To  all  friends  of  American  liberty  be 
it  known:  That  this  morning  before  break  of  day  a  brigade,  consisting 
of  about  1,000  or  1,200  men,  landed  at  Phip's  Farm,  near  Cambridge, 
and  inarched  to  Lexington,  where  they  found  a  company  of  our  colony 
militia  in  arms,  upon  whom  they  fired  without  any  provocation  and 
killed  6  men  and  wounded  4  others.  By  an  express  from  Boston  we 
find  another  brigade  are  upon  their  march  from  Boston,  supposed  to 
be  about  1,000.  The  bearer,  Israel  Bessel,  is  charged  to  alarm  the 
country,  quite  to  Connecticut,  and  all  persons  are  desired  to  furnish 
him  with  fresh  horses,  as  they  may  be  needed."  The  dispatch  was 
signed  by  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Committee  of  Safety. 
Copies  of  it  were  soon  printed  and  the  placards  posted  where  the  peo- 
ple would  be  most  likely  to  see  them. 

The  die  was  now  cast.  The  call  everywhere  was  to  arms.  Boston, 
all  New  England,  had  been  severely  punished  before,  and  the  colonies 
had  rallied  the  best  they  could  to  neutralize  the  punishment  or  pro- 
test against  it.  But  this  open  exchange  of  battle  between  New  Eng- 
land men  under  arms  and  British  soldiers  could  mean  and  bring  only 
one  thing — war.  That  war  must  be  shared  by  all  the  sister  colonies, 
and  independence  must  be  the  result.  New  York  saw  the  issue  thus 
raised,  cheerfully  accepted  it,  and  rose  to  meet  it.  Yet  there  was  ap- 
parent an  early  hesitancy  which  savored  of  caution,  as  if  the  matter 
was  deemed  too  serious  to  be  entered  upon  with  rashness.  The  ele- 
ment represented  by  Sears  and  McDougall  were  for  headlong  meas- 
ures, and  carried  out  some  plans  of  immediate  violence,  one  of  which 
was  the  seizure  of  a  storehouse  at  Turtle  Bay.  But  men  such  as  Jay 
and  Duane  and  Gouverneur  Morris  moved  more  slowly,  yet  with  no 
less  steadiness  of  force  and  purpose.  Under  their  influence  it  was  still 
voted  to  address  a  petition  to  King  or  Parliament.    It.  was  odd,  also, 


198 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


with  war  trembling  on  ilnj  horizon,  to  observe  with  what  considera- 
tion the  movements  of  British  soldiers  were  treated.  On  May  26,  177.">, 
the  British  frigate  Asia,  of  64  guns,  Captain  Vandeput,  came  into 
the  harbor  to  take. on  board  and  convey  to  Boston  the  regiment  quar- 
tered at  the  fort.  Congress  had  previously  given  instructions  that  the 
landing  of  troops  should  not  be  opposed.  It  was  advised,  however,  to 
prevent  them  from  erecting  fortifications;  while  the  people  were  told 
to  be  in  readiness  to  answer  force  with  force.  Thus  peace  and  war 
measures  were  strangely  mixed.  New  York's  Committee  of  One  Hun- 
dred, presumably  in  the  spirit  of  these  Congressional  directions,  an- 
nounced that  the  "  Royal  Irish  "  regiment  might  betake  itself  to  the 
Asia,  but  the  men  must  not  carry  more  arms  with  them  than  those 


THE  NEWS  FROM  LEXINGTON. 


upon  their  persons.  Accordingly,  preparations  were  made  to  leave 
their  quarters  in  the  fori  about  noon  on  June  4.  177.").  They  were  to 
march  across  the  Bow  ling  Green  down  Beaver  to  Broad,  and  so  to  the 
foot  of  Broad,  where,  in  the  Great  Dock,  lay  transports  to  cany  them 
to  the  Asia,  out  in  the  Hiver.  Crowds  collected  as  usual,  and  verv 
soon  they  beheld  something  which  needed  prompt  attention.  After  a 
corporal's  guard  had  issued  from  the  fort  gate,  a  rumbling  of  carts 
w  as  heard,  and  four  or  five  of  these  vehicles  followed  in  quick  succes- 
sion, loaded  wit  h  stacks  of  arms.  Word  of  this  breach  of  faith  on  the 
part  of  the  soldiery  Hew  rapidly  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  soon  came 
to  the  ears  of  some  of  the  Liberty  Boys,  who  were  together  at  a  tavern 
frequented  by  the  patriots  in  W  ater  Street,  near  Broad.    They  imme- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


199 


diately  started  forth  into  the  street, led  by  Marinus  Willett,a  descend- 
ant of  the  first  Mayor  of  New  York  in  L665.  Ee  reached  the  corner  of 
Broad  and  Beaver  just  as  the  tirst  cart  was  about  to  turn  into  the  for- 
mer street.  Now  the  Sons  of  Liberty  had  not  much  liked  the  moderate 
stand  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred.  They  had  wished  to  arrest 
the  whole  regiment  in  their  barracks,  rather  than  let  them  go  unop- 
posed to  aid  the  forces  in  Boston  against  t  heir  fellow-pat  riot s.  When, 
therefore,  the  soldiers  made  themselves  guilty  of  this  breach  of  fait  h. 
the  opportunity,  as  well  as  necessity,  for  decisive  action  seemed  to 
have  come.  Willett  was  the  man  for  thai  critical  moment.  He  boldly 
seized  the  horse  by  the  reins,  and  ordered  the  driver  to  turn  about. 
The  sudden  stop  of  the  procession  of  carts  brought  the  commanding 
officer  to  the  front,  who  naturally  demanded  an  explanation.  This 
brought  other  citizens  around  the  bold  aggressor  and  the  officer,  and 
in  these  few  moments  evidences  were  given  of  the  different  spirits  that 
actuated  the  men  of  our  city  in  the  pending  crisis.  First  spoke  David 
Matthews,  who  remained  a  Tory  all  through  the  war,  and  was  made 
Mayor  of  New  York  during  the  British  occupation.  He  expressed  his 
surprise  that  Mr.  Willett  should  so  endanger  the  peace  of  the  city 
and  invite  bloodshed,  when  he  knew  that  the  troops  had  permission 
to  depart  unmolested.  Willett  did  not  give  much  weight  to  this  re- 
monstrance from  a  well-known  Tory  and  British  sympathizer.  But 
the  next  speaker  almost  staggered  him.  It  was  (  Jouverneur  Morris, 
a  prominent  patriotic  agitator,  the  friend  of  freedom  and  independ- 
ence, lie  unaccountably  supported  the  future  Mayor  in  his  remon- 
strance and  disapproval.  Morris  had  only  recently  maintained  in 
Congress  that  the  mother  country  had  the  right  to  regulate  trade, 
and  that  the  colonies  were  in  duty  bound  to  aid  the  royal  treasury 
by  grants  made  by  the  local  Provincial  Assemblies.  He  was  acting 
now  in  keeping  with  this  pacific  attitude.  Willett  was  wellnigh  per- 
suaded to  retreat  from  his  bold  stand,  when  our  old  friend,  John 
Morin  Scott,  appeared  upon  the  scene.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  One  Hundred.  He  heartily  seconded  Willett  against  31  at- 
thews  and  Morris.  "  You  are  right,"  he  shouted,  in  a  voice  loud 
enough  to  be  heard  above  the  increasing  din.  "  You  are  right,  Wil- 
lett, the  Committee  have  not  given  them  permission  to  carry  off  any 
spare  arms."  Xo  sooner  were  the  words  of  encouragement  uttered 
than  Willett  turned  the  horse's  head  back  up  Beaver  Street  to  the 
Bowling  Green,  and  ordered  the  driver  to  proceed  in  that  direction. 
He  did  so,  the  Major  commanding  making  no  protest.  As  the  last 
cart  was  about  to  turn,  Willett,  at  Scott's  suggestion,  jumped  upon 
it,  and  addressed  the  troops  marching  behind  it,  urging  them  to  give 
up  the  unnatural  business  of  shedding  the  blood  of  their  countrymen, 
and  promising  protection  to  any  who  should  leave  the  ranks  and  come 
forward.  One  man  responded  to  this  appeal,  and  he  was  loudly 
cheered  by  the  crowds.    Thereupon  the  Major  ordered  his  men  to 


200 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


march  back  to  the  fort,  w  hile  the  carts  with  their  chests  of  arms  were 
conducted  up  Broadway  to  the  corner  of  Johii  Street  Here  was  a 
bowling  alley  and  yard  kept  by  one  Van  W'yck,  a  friend  of  the  good 
cause,  and  the  arms  were  deposited  iu  the  alley,  under  his  care.  They 
were  afterward  used  in  equipping  the  first  companies  of  soldiers 
raised  in  our  city  for  the  defense  of  the  country.  It  may  be  interest- 
ing to  remark  that  the  officer  whose  cowardice  or  moderation  pre- 
vented a  bloody  encounter,  resigned  his  commission  the  next  month. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  it  was  a  sincere  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  the  colo- 
nies which  prompted  him  in  both  of  those  actions.  A  tablet  with  a 
bas-relief  representation  of  the  incident  of  June  -4  is  properly  placed 
on  the  building  on  the  corner  of  Broad  and  Beaver.  Marinus  Wil- 
lett  became  a  Colonel  in  the  patriot  army,  was  appointed  .Mayor  of 
New  York  in  1807,  and  died  in  1830  at  the  great  age  of  ninety  years. 
Thus  we  shall  meet  him  again  in  this  history. 

Less  than  a  month  after  Lexington,  on  May  1775.  Congress  had 
adopted  a  general  plan  for  the  creation  of  an  army.  Its  points  were: 
A  Commander-in-Chief;  troops  to  be  enlisted  "  for  the  war."  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  provincial  levies  that  served  but  for  three 
months,  or  less  than  a  year  at  a  time;  a  provision  for  the  care  of 
soldiers'  families,  or  pensions;  the  troops  to  serve  wherever  needed, 
not  for  particular  duties  only;  a  loan  for  the  equipment  of  the  army, 
which  was  to  be  designated  "  The  American  Continental."*  Under 
the  limitations  of  their  financial  condition,  the  matter  of  uniform  for 
the  army  was  left  in  abeyance,  and  it  was  a  motley  assortment  that 
the  defenders  of  liberty  usually  presented  all  through  the  war.  As 
late  as  July  24,  1776,  Washington  issued  an  order  declaring  that  "  he 
feels  unwilling  to  order  any  kind  of  uniform,  but  as  men  must  have 
clothes  and  appear  decent  and  tight,  he  encourages  the  use  of  hunting 
shirts,  with  long  breeches  made  of  the  same  cloth,  gaiter-fashion, 
about  the  legs."  In  this  Washington  had  an  eye  to  inspiring  a  whole- 
some fear  in  the  breast  of  the  enemy.  The  hunters  were  known  to  be 
remarkably  good  marksmen.  They  charged  their  long  carbines 
with  three  or  four  bullets  at  once,  and  each  discharge  was  wont  to  go 
through  somebody  of  the  opposing  ranks.  A  Hessian  officer  wrote 
home  that  these  riflemen  were  terrible;  the  only  consolation  and 
safety  lay  in  the  fact  that  their  pieces  could  not  carry  further  than 
eighty  paces.  Pour  New  York  counties  each  formed  one  regiment  for 
this  Continental  army — New  York.  Albany.  Ulster,  and  Dutchess. 
Of  the  New  York  county  (or  city)  regiment,  our  truculent  pamphle- 
teer, the  American  Wilkes,  Alexander  McDougall,  was  made 
Colonel.  Secretary  John  Lamb  undertook  to  organize  one  company 
of  artillerymen. 

As  another  illustration  of  the  mixture  of  things  early  in  the  war 
may  be  noted  the  passing  of  Washington  through  New  York,  on  his 
journey  to  take  command  of  the  army  before  Boston.    On  June  14, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


201 


1775,  three  days  before  Bunker  Hill,  he  had  been  appointed  Comman- 
der-in-Chief by  the  Congress,  on  motion  of  John  Adams.  On  Sunday, 
June  25,  he  reached  New  York.  He  had  been  met  at  Newark.  N.  J., 
by  a  committee,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Grouverneur  Morris  and 
Richard  Montgomery,  so  soon  fated  to  die  in  his  adopted  country's 
cause  before  the  walls  of  Quebec.  The  party  crossed  the  river  from 
Hoboken,  and  landed  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  at  about  the  foot 
of  Laight  Street,  near  Greenwich.  Here  eight  or  ten  companies  of 
militia  under  arms  met  the  distinguished  visitor,  and  escorted  him  to 
his  hotel,  presumably  the  old  Fraunce's  Tavern.  Early  the  next 
morning  Washington  started  for  Boston,  escorted  for  some  distance 
out  of  town  along  the  Bowery  and  King's  Bridge  roads  by  the  militia. 
At  eight  o'clock  of  the  same  day  on  which  Washington  arrived,  <  rov- 


EXPLOIT  OF  MARINUS  WILLETT. 


ernor  Tryon  reached  his  post  again,  after  a  hurried  shortening  of  his 
leave  of  absence.  The  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Patriot  Army  had 
been  received  in  state  in  the  afternoon;  the  representative  of  the 
old  regime  was  none  the  less  honorably  recognized.  A  delegation  of 
magistrates,  attended  by  companies  of  militia,  met  him  at  his  land- 
ing place,  at  the  foot  of  Whitehall  Street.  It  still  looked  as  if  the 
Colonists  were  trying  to  serve,  or  felt  obliged  to  serve,  two  masters. 
Yet  none  the  less  went  forward  the  work  of  preparing  for  the  extrem- 
ities of  war.  Only  three  days  after  this  double  demonstration  Colonel 
McDougall's  regiment,  and  Captain  Lamb's  artillery  company  com- 
pleted their  organization. 

It  was  this  artillery  company  which  set  the  ball  rolling,  both  figura- 
tively and  literally  speaking.  About  eleven  o'clock  on  the  night  of 
August  23  a  number  of  the  Liberty  Boys  proceeded  to  carry  out  a 


202 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK 


request  of  the  Provincial  Congress,  to  remove  the  guns  from  the  Bat- 
tery, so  that  they  might  be  transferred  to  fortifications  up  the  river. 
To  cover  their  exploit  a  part  of  Colonel  Lamb's  company  stood  guard, 
and  when  a  barge  sent  from  the  Asia  to  reconnoiter  the  suspicious 
movements  on  shore  came  near  enough,  they  sent  a  volley  oi  musketry 
into  the  boat,  killing  one  of  the  occupants.  Instantly  putting  back,  a 
broadside  was  opened  upon  the  town  from  the  ship.  Several  houses 
were  damaged,  one  ball  going  through  the  roof  of  Fraunce's  Tavern, 
and  three  citizens  were  badly  wounded.  The  whole  town  was  soon  in 
a  frenzy  of  excitement.  Several  families  gathered  their  portable  prop- 
erty together  and  fled  into  the  woods  and  fields.  Others  raged  around 
mob-fashion,  threatening  the  lives  of  Tories.  Dr.  Cooper,  the  Loyal- 
ist President  of  Columbia,  was  chased  through  the  streets  to  his 
home.  The  crowd  were  about  to  beat  down  the  door,  wheu  they  were 
confronted  by  that  strange  youth  who  had  harangued  them  in  the 
Fields  the  year  before.  Alexander  Hamilton  had  joined  Lamb's  artil- 
lery company,  and  had  just  been  seen  doing  duty  valiantly  at  his  post. 
He  had  divined  the  purpose  of  the  mob,  and  now  stood  on  the  steps 
of  the  College,  arguing  the  mob  out  of  their  mad  design  to  hurt  the 
poor  doctor.  It  was  a  foreshadowing  of  the  day  when  the  same  mag- 
nanimous patriot  would  defend  Tories  at  the  risk  of  his  life  against 
cruel  retaliations  after  the  war.  He  appeased  the  violence  of  the 
people,  and  saved  Dr.  Cooper,  although  the  old  gentleman  cried  lust- 
ily from  a  top-story  window  not  to  heed  the  mad-cap  boy  whom  he 
supposed  was  urging  them  to  the  very  opposite  of  what  he  did.  The 
guns  meanwhile  had  been  safely  captured  and  were  sent  northward 
to  serve  in  a  better  cause. 

To  the  convenient  Asia,  so  ready  to  use  her  guns  against  the  city, 
although  commanded  by  a  captain  whose  name.  Vandeput,  suggests 
a  Dutch  ancestry  or  derivation,  it  was  found  best  for  Governor  Tryon 
to  retire.  He  occupied  certainly  a  most  peculiar  position  as  Royal 
( rovernpr,  with  rebel  Commanders-in-Chief  crossing  his  path,  and  Pro- 
vincial Congresses  ordering  the  guns  of  his  fort  to  be  removed,  and 
war  waging  in  a  neighboring  Province,  in  winch  his  own  was  bound 
to  bear  a  part.  Early  in  October  it  was  intimated  to  him  that  the  pa- 
triotic Congress  at  Philadelphia  had  recommended  his  arrest.  The 
Mayor  assured  him  that  he  would  guarantee  his  safety,  but,  never!  he- 
less,  on  October  L3,  he  removed  his  family  and  effects  on  board  the 
lb-it ish  frigate.  He  continued,  however,  to  annoy  his  former  gov- 
ernment. In  the  first  place  he  took  away  the  records  from  the  sec- 
retary's office,  so  that  hardly  any  landholder  could  prove  title  to  his 
estates  in  a  court  of  law.  They  were  carried  to  England  three  years 
later,  but  again  three  years  after  they  were  returned.  Nevertheless, 
much  harm  had  been  done  by  these  unnecessary  travels  of  papers  so 
important,  and  so  necessary  to  be  kept  in  a  permanent  situation.  On 
October  19  Tryon  took  up  his  abode  on  the  sloop-of-war  Halifax. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


203 


and  again  later  on  the  Duchess  of  Gordon,  whence  lie  acted  as  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York  as  best  he  could.  In  December  Ins  influence  was 
exerted  to  prevent  delegates  from  counties  strongly  Tory,  such  as 
Queens  and  Richmond,  from  attending  the  Provincial  Congress.  And 
when,  in  the  next  year,  a  plot  was  concocted  to  remove  Washington 
by  poison,  it  was  not  without  the  connivance  or  knowledge  of  the  ex- 
Royal  Governor.  Golden,  who  was  superseded  as  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor for  the  last  time  when  Tryon  came  back  in  June,  177.~>,  was  not 
living  in  the  city.  He  had  retired  to  his  country-seat  near  Flushing, 
and  died  there  in  September,  177C>.  t 

The  very  last  day  of  the  year  1775  had  been  marred  by  the  disas- 
trous failure  of  the  Canadian  campaign  before  the  gates  of  Quebec. 
During  the  early  months  of  177G  Washington  kept  drawing  the  lines 
tighter  around  Boston,  occupying  the  time  spent  iu  waiting  in  trying 
to  make  something  like  an  army  out  of  the  enthusiastic  crowd  of  pat- 
riots called  from  plows,  or  fishing  boats,  or  counting-houses  by  the 
whirring  bullets  at  Lexington  and  the  glorious  action  of  Bunker  Hill. 
At  last,  in  March,  1770,  Boston  was  evacuated  by  the  enemy,  and  now 
came  New  York's  turn.  It  was  morally  certain  that  this  city  would 
be  the  next  point  of  attack.  Its  openness  to  attack  by  a  power  in  ab- 
solute command  of  the  sea  was  notorious,  and  its  situation  was  such 
that  without  a  navy  to  support  the  army,  defense  on  land  was  hardly 
possible.  Therefore  the  Continental  Army  began  to  wend  its  way 
hither.  Some  months  before  the  movement  had  already  begun.  In 
January,  1776,  Washington  received  word  that  Sir  Henry  Clinton  had 
left  Boston  for  New  York  with  a  man-of-war.  General  Charles  Lee 
M  as  thereupon  hurried  off  to  the  latter  city,  and  reached  it  on  Febru- 
ary 4,  the  same  day  that  Sir  Henry  came  into  port.  At  once  there  was 
much  ado,  but  it  proved  to  be  about  nothing.  Sir  Henry  was  one  of 
the  numerous  sons  of  Governor  George  Clinton,  and  he  had  spent  ten 
years  of  his  boyhood  life  in  New  York.  He  informed  the  citizens 
through  the  Mayor  that  he  had  only  come  to  visit  Governor  Tryon, 
and  to  renew  his  juvenile  impressions  of  the  place.  Meantime,  al- 
though it  was  a  Sunday,  loaded  carts  and  boats  full  of  passengers 
were  leaving  town  as  fast  as  they  could,  under  the  supposition  that 
Lee  and  Clinton  must  necessarily  have  a  battle  in  the  streets.  Lee 
did  not  have  the  best  of  feelings  toward  the  town  he  came  to  defend. 
The  Provincial  Congress,  still  tampering  with  pacific  endeavors, 
had  sent  word  to  him  not  to  come  on  the  very  day  before  he  left  the 
camp  before  Boston;  he  came  therefore  with  the  idea  that  he  must 
overawe  the  city  as  a  Tory  stronghold.  Whether  welcome  or  not, 
however,  his  undoubted  familiarity  with  military  science  enabled 
him  to  put  New  York  into  as  good  a  state  of  defense  as  circumstances 
made  possible.  A  redoubt  protected  by  fascines  was  stretched  across 
Broadway  where  it  faced  the  open  country.  Bayard's  Mount,  later 
called  Bunker  Hill  (also  sometimes  called  Mount  Pleasant),  covering 


204 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  space  now  bounded  by  Grand.  Centre,  Broome,  and  Elizabeth 
streets,  afforded  an  advantageous  position  for  fortification,  com- 
manding a  view  across  country  all  the  way  to  Greenwich.  Further 
out,  Horn's  Hook,  or  Grade's  Point,  opposite  Hell  Gate,  now  part  of 
the  park  at  Eighty-sixth  Street,  East  River,  was  also  fortified  by  Lee, 
while  he  occupied  Jacob  Walton's  elegant  country-seat  there  as  a 
headquarters.  Alter  Boston  was  evacuated  nothing  was  looked  for 
but  the  appearance  of  the  British  in  the  Port  of  New  York.  Guards 
were  stationed  at  the  Narrows  and  at  Rockaway  to  watch  for  the  first 
appearance  of  the  enemy's  fleet,  and  signals  arranged  to  quickly  com- 
municate the  fact.  On  April  4  General  Putnam  was  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  city,  superseding  the  more  scientific  but  less  popular  Lee. 
The  work  of  fortifying  points  of  vantage  wont  on  diligently.  Red 
Hook  was  provided  with  breast  works  and  cannon.  Governor's  Island 
received  a  garrison.  On  Bedlow's  Island  buildings  intended  as  an 
asylum  for  banished  Tory  New  Yorkers  were  burned,  and  stores,  such 
as  clothing  and  poultry  and  tools  for  making  trenches,  secured.  Three 


main  anxiety  was  getting  the  raw  troops  into  soldierly  trim,  with 
which  their  thirst  for  independence  sadly  interfered.  In  fact,  he  ac- 
tually was  forced  to  send  many  home  again,  because  they  refused  to 
go  through  the  necessary  drills.  Alarm  signals  were  arranged,  to 
consist  of  two  cannon  tired  in  quick  succession,  either  in  the  day  or 
night  ;  in  daytime  t  his  signal  w  as  to  be  accompanied  by  a  flag  hoisted 
above  the  General's  headquarters,  and  at  nighl  t  wo  lanterns  similarly 
hoisted.  These  headquarters,  according  to  some  authorities,  were  at 
No.  1  Broadway;  others  place  them  at  Richmond  Hill,  a  fine  country- 
seat,  about  where  now  lie  the  blocks  between  Charlton  and  Spring 
streets,  on  Yarick.  This  would  seem  rather  far  away  for  the  utility 
of  danger  signals.  On  still  other  authority  Washington  resided  dur- 
ing the  first  weeks  of  his  stay  at  the  old  De  Peyster  honso  in  Pearl 

Street,  opposite  Cedar.  No.  1  Broadway  was  General  Putnam's  resi- 
dence during  his  command  of  the  city.  It  was  estimated  that  no  less 
than  ten  thousand  troops  had  been  collected  in  and  around  the  city 


VIEW  OF  BELL  GATE  IX  1776. 


companies  of  ri- 
flemen w  e  r  e 
placed  on  Stat  en 
Island  to  worry 
b  oats  landing 
from  the  enemy's 
ships.  On  April 
14  Washington 
himself  came  to 
the  c  i  t  y.  and 
carefully  s  u  r  - 
veyed  what  had 
been  done.  His 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


205 


before  the  end  of  April.  By  request  of  Congress,  New  Jersey  and  Con- 
necticut were  to  hold  their  militia  in  readiness  to  serve  in  New  York 
at  the  first  call  for  them,  during  which  service  they  would  receive  pay 
as  Continental  regulars.  A  brigade  under  John  Morin  Scott  was  sta- 
tioned in  the  city  itself;  another  along  the  East  River  shore  within 
the  city  boundaries;  a  third  from  the  shipyards  above  Peck  Slip  along 
the  East  River  beyond  Kip's  and  Turtle  Bays,  as  far  as  Jones's  Wood. 
Lord  Stirling  (William  Alexander)  and  MacDougall's  brigade  were 
stationed  near  Bayard's  or  Bunker  Hill,  and  another  brigade  along 
the  Hudson  shore  from  Greenwich  down  to  Canal  Street.  A  brigade 
under  General  Mifflin  was  placed  at  Fort  Washiugton,  and  one  under 
General  George  Clinton  at  King's  Bridge.  At  the  same  time  exten- 
sive defenses  had  been  erected  on  all  the  elevated  points  on  Long 
Island  now  within  the  limits  of  Brooklyn,  reaching  from  Wallabout 
to  Gowanus  and  Red  Hook.  Back  of  these  ran  a  line  of  intrenchments 
within  a  narrower  circle,  making  a  sort  of  fort  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
present  Fulton  Ferry.  It  was  not  yet  certain  that  the  enemy  would 
approach  that  way,  and  only  General  Nathaniel  Greene's  division  was 
stationed  among  these  defenses.  Naturally  of  the  troops  concen- 
trated here  for  her  defense  those  of  New  York  City  herself  were  found 
most  active  and  ready  for  service.  The  regiments  already  organized 
in  1775  were  re-organized,  as  the  terms  of  some  had  expired,  and  they 
had  seen  service  in  the  Canada  campaign.  Colonel  MacDougall  was 
soon  made  Brigadier-General.  Captain  Lamb,  of  the  artillery  com- 
pany, had  been  wounded  and  made  prisoner  at  Quebec,  and  but  thirty 
of  his  seventy  men  returned  home.  It  needed  building  up  again,  and 
now  became  "  the  New  York  Provincial  Company  of  Artillery,"  choos- 
ing for  Captain,  on  March  14,  1776,  the  youthful  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, whose  versatile  mind  had  rapidly  mastered  the  principles  of 
artillery  service.  While  drilling  his  men  one  day  on  the  Commons, 
his  superior  knowledge  and  ability  in  training  his  men  attracted  the 
attention  of  General  Greene.  He  introduced  the  youthful  prodigy  to 
Washington,  and  thus  began  that  intimate  relation  between  the  two 
men  which  became  of  such  immense  service  to  their  common  country, 
and  which  lasted  to  the  end  of  Washington's  life. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  Tories  in  the  city,  the  upholders  of 
the  old  state  of  things,  would  not  be  looked  upon  with  a  very  friendly 
eye.  Their  British  friends  sought  to  provide  a  place  of  safety  for 
them  on  Bedlow's  Island,  but,  as  we  saw,  this  scheme  was  frustrated 
by  the  patriots.  The  more  violent  party  among  the  populace  could 
not  be  altogether  restrained  within  the  bounds  of  propriety  by  the 
generals  in  command.  In  the  month  of  June  outbreaks  of  hostility 
occurred  more  than  once.  An  eyewitness  tells  of  Tories  being  hauled 
about  through  the  streets  by  night,  lighted  candles  being  placed  in 
their  hands  and  forced  into  their  faces.  A  few  days  later  the  aggres- 
sors became  bolder,  and  in  broad  daylight  they  took  several  people 


206 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  standing  in  the  community,  stripped  them  naked  and  rode  them 
around  on  rails.  Perhaps  they  were  tarred  and  feathered  also,  as  was 
dune  frequently  in  country  districts.  Putnam  had  great  trouble  in 
dispersing  the  mob  and  stopping  such  discreditable  business.  And 
yet  there  was  much  to  provoke  the  people  at  that  very  time.  During 
this  same  month  a  conspiracy  was  discovered  w  hich  had  for  its  object 
the  poisoning  of  Washington  and  other  generals  of  the  patriot  army. 
A  free  use  of  gold  was  made,  issuing,  without  doubt,  from  the  Gover- 
nor's ship.  Several  arrests  were  made,  the  most  prominent  one  that, 
on  June  21.  of  David  Matthews,  the  Tory  who  opposed  Willett,  at  the 
corner  of  Beaver  and  Broad  streets,  and  who  was  made  Mayor  when 
the  British  came  in.  A  gunsmith  and  some  other  tradespeople,  and 
Thomas  Hickey,  a  private  of  Washington's  bodyguard,  were  also 
taken  into  custody.  Investigation  pointed  clearly  to  some  significant 
dealings  between  Governor  Tryon  and  Matthews  and  a  few  more  citi- 
zens, in  regard  to  the  supply  of  arms  and  ammunition  for  suspicious 
purposes;  but  nothing  could  be  proved,  and  the  prisoners  were  re- 
leased. Jt  was  different  with  Hickey,  who  had  made  definite  propo- 
sitions to  cooks  at  headquarters,  so  that  a  case  was  made  out  againsl 
him  for  attempt  at  poisoning,  as  well  as  holding  communication  with 
the  enemy.  On  June  28  he  was  hanged  for  the  offense,  much  to  the 
satisfaction  of  a  large  gathering  of  people. 

The  somewhat  anomalous  conditions  under  which  the  war  had 
hitherto  been  carried  on  were  relieved  very  greatly  by  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  On  June  7.  177(i.  Richard  Henry  Lee.  of  Virginia, 
had  offered  his  famous  resolution  in  Congress  at  Philadelphia,  "  that 
these  united  colonies  are  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  indepen- 
dent states."  John  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  seconded  the  motion, 
and  its  discussion  was  made  the  order  for  the  day  at  111  o'clock  on 
June  8.  The  9th  was  Sunday;  on  Monday  the  debate  was  resumed, 
when  a  motion  to  postpone  action  for  three  weeks  was  carried,  with 
the  proviso  that  in  the  mean  time  a  Declaration  of  Independence 
should  be  drafted  and  be  submitted  at  the  next  discussion.  On  the 
12th  of  June  the  commit  tee  to  draft  this  paper  was  appointed,  consist- 
ing, as  is  well  known,  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  John  Adams,  Benja- 
min Franklin,  Roger  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  and  a  prominent  citi- 
zen of  New  York.  Robert  K.  Livingston.  On  duly  2  the  resolution  of 
Independence  was  adopted,  and  the  discussion  of  the  Declaration, 
written  almost  unaided  by  Jefferson,  began.  It  was  finally  adopted 
on  July  4,  which  thenceforth  became  the  date  to  mark  the  birth  of  the 
nation. 

The  news  of  the  event  that  occurred  at  Philadelphia  on  t  he  Fourl  h, 
reached  New  York  a  few  days  later,  and  on  the  9th  <>f  duly  prepara- 
tions Mere  made  for  paying  proper  honors  to  the  occasion.  All  the 
troops  within  the  city  were  ordered  to  collect  on  the  Commons,  form- 
ing a  hollow  square  about  where  the  plaza  in  front  of  the  city  Hall  is 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


207 


now.  Washington  rode  into  the  center  of  it  with  his  staff.  The  J  >ecla- 
ration  was  then  read  in  the  hearing  of  all.  It  was  an  important  instru- 
ment for  the  army.  Well  had  Washington  said  in  the  general  order 
calling  the  assembly  together:  "The  General  hopes  this  important 
event  will  serve  as  a  fresh  incentive  to  every  officer  and  soldier  to  act 
with  fidelity  and  courage,  as  knowing  that  now  the  peace  and  safety 
of  his  country  depend  (under  God)  solely  on  the  success  of  our  arms, 
and  that  he  is  now  in  the  service  of  a  State  possessed  of  sufficient 
power  to  reward  his  merit  and  advance  him  to  the  highest  honors  of  a 
free  country."  There  were  no  salvos  of  cannon  or  musketry  to  greet 
the  reading  of  the  Declaration,  but  a  burst  of  hearty  applause  rose 
from  the  assembled  troops  and  citizens.  The  latter  rushed  to  the  City 
Hall  and  tore  down  the  portrait  of  George  III.,  cutting  it  into  frag- 
ments and  trampling  upon  it  in  the  street.  The  soldiers,  not  to  be 
outdone  in  an  enthusiasm  which,  while  not  altogether  commendable, 
and  properly  rebuked  by  Washington,  was  yet  quite  natural,  showed 
their  zeal  that  evening  by  pulling  down  the  leaden  statue  of  his  royal 
majesty  on  the  Bowling  Green.  Its  head  was  recovered  afterward 
by  Engineer  Montressor  and  sent  to  England;  the  saddle  and  horse's 
tail  were  found  at  Wilton,  Connecticut,  in  1871,  and  are  now  pre- 
served in  the  collection  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  at  Elev- 
enth Street  and  Second  Avenue,  where  may  also  be  seen  the  stone 
slab  on  which  the  statue  originally  stood.  The  rest  of  the  statue, 
horse,  man,  and  all,  was  wisely  utilized  by  being  converted  into  bul- 
lets for  patriotic  purposes  at  Litchfield,  Conn.  The  recognition  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  by  the  army  was  ere  long  supplemented 
by  a  public  acknowledgment  of  it  on  the  part  of  the  municipal  govern- 
ment. This,  as  has  been  noted,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Committee  of 
One  Hundred  (or  of  Safety).  By  their  order  the  citizens  were  called 
together  in  front  of  the  City  Hall  on  Thursday,  July  18,  at  exactly 
twelve  o'clock  noon.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  read,  and 
greeted  again  with  enthusiastic  approval  and  applause.  The  King's 
coat  of  arms  was  removed  from  the  courtroom  and  burned  in  the 
presence  of  the  multitude  as  a  token  of  the  new  order  of  affairs.  For 
already  the  Province  of  New  York  had  ceased  to  be.  On  July  9,  while 
the  troops  were  listening  to  the  Declaration  in  New  York,  the  Provin- 
cial Congress  assumed  the  name  of  the  "  Convention  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  State  of  New  York."  John  Jay  was  appointed  to  draft  a 
constitution.  New  York  having  become  the  seat  of  war,  it  was  not 
till  March,  1777,  that  Jay  was  ready  with  his  report.  In  April  the 
convention,  then  sitting  at  Kingston,  in  a  house  still  sacredly  pre- 
served, adopted  the  Constitution,  and  under  its  provisions  before  the 
end  of  the  same  year,  1777,  General  George  Clinton  was  elected  Gov- 
ernor. John  Jay  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  of  the  State,  and  Robert 
R.  Livingston,  Chancellor.  Five  citizens  of  New  York,  which  was 
then  in  the  hands  of  the  British,  were  elected  delegates  of  the  State 


208 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


to  the  Continental  Congress:  Philip  Livingston,  James  Duane,  Fran- 
cis Lewis,  William  Dun-,  and  Gouverneur  Morris. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  had  made  facing  both  ways  on 
the  part  of  the  Municipality  or  the  Provincial  Congress  impossible. 
The  lines  between'  submission  to  English  authority  and  the  effort  for 
independence  and  nationality  were  now  sharply  drawn.  It  was  obey 
or  fight;  and  the  English  were  at  hand  to  give  plenty  of  exercise  to 
the  second  alternative.  On  June  29  Washington  wrote  to  Congress 
that  the  first  view  had  been  obtained  off  Sandy  Hook  of  the  approach- 
ing fleet  of  the  enemy.  By  July  2  a  fleet  of  over  one  hundred  and 
thirty  vessels,  ships-of-the-line,  frigates,  tenders,  transports,  were 
lying  at  anchor  in  the  Lower  Bay.  The  few  American  troops  were 
withdrawn  from  Staten  Island,  and  on  July  2  and  3  General  Howe 
landed  a  part  of  his  forces  there,  distributing  them  over  the  island  so 
as  to  guard  against  approaches  by  the  patriots.  <  >n  Friday  morning. 
July  12,  Lord  Howe,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  arrived,  attended  by 


aged  men  to  the  country,  both  for  their  own  safety  and  in  order  to 
permit  greater  freedom  for  tin  mameuvers  of  the  troops.  The  bom- 
bardment seemed  now  to  have  been  actually  initiated.  Two  of  the 
enemy's  biggest  ships,  each  followed  by  its  tender,  were  seen  coming 
through  t  he  Narrows  and  np  to  t  he  city  at  a  lively  rate,  favored  by  I  he 
tide  and  a  southerly  breeze  filling  out  to  the  fall  every  inch  of  canvas 
set.  They  reserved  their  fire  till  past  the  batteries  on  shore,  which 
blazed  away  at  them  without  much  effect.  When  nearly  opposite 
Trinity  Church  they  opened  their  broadsides,  damaging  houses  all 
along  the  river  as  far  as  Greenwich  and  killing  three  American  sol- 
diers, three  others  suffering  death  from  careless  or  unskillful  hand- 
ling of  a  cannon.  The  si  x  were  buried  in  one  grave  in  Bowling  Green. 
Meantime  the  two  ships  (the  Rose  and  the  Phoenix)  had  gone 
rapidly  up  the  river.  The  intention  of  the  movement  had  been  to  cu1 
off  communication  bet  ween  i  he  city  and  interior,  to  destroy  some  ves- 
sels building  for  the  patriots  at  Poughkeepsie,  and  to  replenish  the 
larder.    The  ships  met  with  little  success  in  either  of  these  particu- 


KLTNS  OF  THIN  IT  Y  CHCHCII. 


still  more  ships.  About 
three  o'clock  that  same 
afternoon  the  people  of 
the  city  were  treated  to  an 
unpleasant  surprise. 
Washington  had  already 
warned  them  that  a  bom- 
bardment of  the  town 
might  be  expected  hourly, 
in  view  of  the  great  naval 
force  of  the  enemy  so  (  lose 
at  hand,  and  had  recom- 
mended the  removal  of 
women  and  children  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


209 


lars,  and  were  fain  to  return  a  month  or  more  later  (August  17).  Gen 
oral  Putnam,  to  prevent  their  return,  and  to  keep  other  ships  from  re- 
peating the  experiment,  had  devised  a  sort  of  chevaux-de-frise  in 
water.  Between  ships  placed  two  by  two  seventy  feet  apart  three 
large  logs  were  stretched,  by  which  means  a  length  of  two  hundred 
and  eighty  feet  of  the  river  was  obstructed,  the  vessels  being  sunk 
just  below  the  surface  of  the  water.  The  Rose  and  Phcenix  on 
their  way  down  had  no  trouble  in  evading  this  obstruction,  however; 
but  the  batteries  at  Paulus  Hook  and  on  the  city  shore  did  better 
work  this  time,  and  succeeded  in  getting  a  few  shot  into  their  hulls, 
hire  ships  up  the  river  too  had  caused  the  loss  of  one  of  the  tenders. 

Before  the  actual  clash  of  arms  soon  to  startle  t  he  country  with  its 
results,  and  destined  to  leave  our  city  for  so  many  years  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  there  was  a  lull  in  the  tempest,  tilled  with  the  sweet 
murmurings  of  an  attempted  conciliation  and  peace.  Lord  Howe  had 
been  authorized  by  the  home  government  to  offer  terms  of  peace,  in- 
cluding pardon  for  all  acts  of  rebellion,  lie  began  the  effort  at  recon- 
ciliation by  sending  an  officer  with  a  letter  to  Washington.  A  boat 
with  a  wldte  Hag  was  seen  approaching  the  city,  and  Colonel  Reed, 
Adjutant-General  of  the  American  forces,  was  sent  by  the  Comman- 
der-in-Chief to  meet  it  half  way.  As  the  two  barges  touched  in  mid- 
stream, the  bearer  of  the  letter  handed  it  to  Colonel  Reed,  informing 
him  that  it  was  intended  for  Mr.  Washington.  The  Colonel  replied 
that  there  was  no  such  person  in  New  York  City.  The  letter  was 
then  produced  bearing  the  superscription.  "George  Washington, 
Esq."  Again  Reed  insisted  that  he  knew  of  no  such  person,  and  as- 
sured him  that  the  one  whom  he  surmised  was  meant  would  under  no 
circumstances  receive  a  letter  so  addressed.  The  disappointed  officer 
was  therefore  compelled  to  return  to  his  principal  without  accom- 
plishing his  errand.  A  few  days  later,  July  19,  Howe,  abandoning 
t  he  attempt  to  forward  a  letter,  sent  a  representative  in  the  person  of 
Colonel  Patterson,  the  British  Adjutant-General.  He  was  accorded 
an  interview  at  General  Putnam's  headquarters,  No.  1  Broadway. 
But  the  conference  came  to  nothing,  and  as  to  the  pardon,  Washing 
ton  observed  that  the  term  was  quite  irrelevant  in  connection  with 
the  American  colonists,  as  nothing  requiring  pardon  had  been  com- 
mitted by  them. 

Thus  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  war.  and  England's  formidable 
array  of  land  and  naval  forces  was  now  marshaled  together  for  the 
long-dreaded  assault.  The  list  of  Howe's  forces  before  New  York  in 
1T7<»  is  preserved.  There  were  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Regi- 
ments of  Dragoons;  a  regiment  of  foot  guards,  eleven  hundred  strong; 
twenty-three  regiments  of  infantry;  the  Forty-second  Regiment  of 
Royal  Highlanders;  the  Seventy-first  Regiment,  or  Prazer's  Battal- 
ion, numbering  nearly  thirteen  hundred  men;  six  companies  of  artil- 
lery, and  two  battalions  of  marines  colliding  eleven  hundred  men. 


210 


HISTORY  OF  THK  GRKATKK  NEW  YORK. 


There  w  ere  also  nearly  fourteen  thousand  Hessian  troops.  The  whole 
force  numbered  33,614  men,  of  whom  24,464  were  in  actual  condition 
for  battle.  Four  hundred  transport  boats  had  been  collected  to  con- 
voy the  army  from  Statcn  Island  to  any  point  chosen  as  the  most  expe- 
dient for  attack.  For  some  reason  discarding  the  use  of  his  great 
naval  support,  to  which  the  Americans  had  absolutely  nothing  to 
oppose,  Lord  Howe  determined  to  approach  New  York  by  way  of 
Long  Island.  On  August  22,  fifteen  thousand  troops  were  conveyed 
across  the  Lower  Lay  ami  landed  on  the  beach  at  the  head  of  Graves- 
end  Lay,  between  New  Utrecht  and  Gravesend  villages.  The  story  of 
what  follows  is  familiar  to  all.  The  inarch  on  the  intrenched  camp 
in  Brooklyn  in  three  columns;  the  surprise  effected  by  the  detour 
made  by  one  Of  these  columns,  and  its  descent  upon  an  unguarded 
point  in  the  rear  of  the  American  army;  the  heroic  but  fruitless  light; 
the  utter  defeat;- — all  stand  vividly  before  the  mind  as  we  recall  the 
Battle  of  Long  Island  of  August  27,  17T(i.  Not  less  thrilling  is  the 
story  of  Washington's  masterly  withdrawal  of  his  army  from  the  trap 
in  which  they  would  have  been  otherwise  inevitably  caught.  But  the 
story  in  its  details  belongs  more  especially  to  the  history  of  our  sister 
city,  now  one  with  the  Greater  New  York,  autl  a  place  for  it  must  be 
reserved  in  the  next  volume.  We  must  hasten  on  to  the  results  and 
such  subsequent  events  growing  out  of  the  Battle  of  Long  Island  as 
had  for  their  scene  the  island  of  Manhattan  more  particularly.  There 
are  enough  of  these  to  more  than  occupy  the  space  allowed  here. 

W  ashington  had  saved  the  army  from  capture  by  Howe,  but  it  was 
in  a  sadly  demoralized  condition.  It  was  dropping  to  pieces,  too,  for 
militiamen  were  returning  to  their  native  States  and  towns  by  com- 
panies and  even  whole  regiments  at  a  time.  When  there  was  a  chain  • 
lo  look  around  at  the  remnants,  it  was  found  that  General  Putnam, 
wiih  the  brigades  of  Parsons,  Scott,  James  Clinton,  and  two  other 
brigadiers,  occupied  a  position  in  the  city  and  out  as  far  as  a  line 
across  the  island  about  where  Fifteenth  Si  reel  is  now.  Six  brigades, 
among  them  that  of  McDougall,  took  post  at  different  points  along 
the  Fast  River,  extending  l  heir  line  as  far  as  Horn's  Hook,  opposite 
Hell  (late.  Generals  Heath.  Mifflin,  and  George  Clinton  were  sta- 
tioned  at  King's  Bridge  as  before.  None  of  the  troops  were  in  a  very 
g  1  frame  of  mind  for  lighting  the  enemy,  while  the  latter  were  pre- 
paring to  make  an  attack  with  both  their  naval  and  land  forces  at 
once.  They  possessed  a  fearful  advantage.  On  September  3  the 
K'ose  frigate  sailed  up  the  Fast  Liver  and  anchored  in  Wallabout 
Lay.  She  wns  tired  on  by  our  batteries,  but  without  effect.  On  the 
14th  four  more  frigates,  among  them  the  Pho'nix.  sailed  past  the 
patriot  batteries  and  joined  the  Lose  in  the  Wallabout.  All  this 
was  bu1  in  preparation  tor  the  effort  contemplated  for  September  15. 
Early  that  morning  the  five  frigates  sailed  up  the  river  and  anchored 
opposite    Fiji's   Lay.   at    Thirty-fourth  Street.    The  same  favoring 


212 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


breeze  took  three  men-of-war  up  the  .North  River  as  far  as  Blooming- 
dale.  No  American  forces  could  not  in  the  rear  of  the  British  in  the 
East  River,  for  there  was  a  long  line  of  posts  occupied  by  the  enemy, 
Including  Governor's  Island  at  ihe  south,  and  .Mont  lessor's  (Ran- 
dall's) and  Buchanan's  (Ward's)  islands  at  Hie  northern,  extremity. 
Troops  were  stationed  also  on  t  he  hill  at  Astoria,  commanding  ;i  view 
of  the  approaches  of  Hell  Gate  on  both  sides,  and  ;i  line  of  pests  ran 
down  through  Newtown  to  Wallaboul  and  Gowanus.  Tims  masters 
of  the  situation  in  every  particular,  the  British  proceeded  to  accom- 
plish their  design  in  n  very  elaborate  and  picturesque  manner. 
Eighty-four  boats  were  tilled  with  troops,  standing  up,  muskets  in 
hand,  in  the  middle,  while  six  or  more  sailors  were  at  t  he  oars  in  each. 
They  were  rowed  leisurely  in  two  lines  toward  the  head  of  Kip's 
Hay.  As  they  started  the  five  frigates  poured  in  a  deadly  fire  from 
decks  and  tops  upon  the  spot  selected  for  landing,  the  smoke  in  the 
mean  time  hiding  the  boats.  Whether  the  American  forces  were  in 
a  condition  to  withstand  the  enemy  and  prevent  the  Landing  may  be  ;i 
question:  it  was  certain  no  one  was  there  to  dispute  their  progress. 
Two  Connecticut  regiments  had  been  stationed  near  Kip's  Hay.  When 
Washington  rode  t«»  the  scene  of  the  firing  he  met  them  on  the  road 
that  then  ran  across  the  island  to  Turtle  Bay,  about  where  forty- 
third  Streel  is  now.  On  the  site  of  the  Grand  Central  Depot  he 
stopped  and  sought  to  rally  them,  hut  it  was  too  late.  Riding  toward 
I  he  river  he  met  still  more  of  t  he  fugitives,  pursued  by  a  party  of  sixty 
or  seventy  of  i he  enemy.  Washington  in  disgust  threw  down  his  hat 
and  sal  motionless,  facing  t  he  pursuers;  only  after  much  urging  could 
the  staff  officers  induce  him  to  leave  the  spot,  so  that  he  was  nearly 
<  a  p!  ured  or  shot .  There  was  nothing  to  prevent  t  he  l>ritish  marching 
down  the  Boston  post-road  into  the  city,  and  Putnam's  division  was  in 
imminent  danger  of  being  caught  there.  Stationing  lookouts  on  l>ay- 
a-d's.  or  Bunker  Hill,  near  Grand  and  Elizabeth  streets,  Putnam  held 
his  men  ready  for  any  emergency.  At  this  critical  moment  a  young 
officer  of  t  he  name  of  Aaron  Burr  dashed  up  to  t  he  <  iencral  and  prom- 
ised to  Conduct  him  out  of  the  trap,  by  the  use  of  his  familiar  knowl- 
edge of  t  he  topography  of  the  island.  He  led  the  division  across  coun- 
try to  i  he  road  called  .Monument  Lane,  now  Greenwich  Avenue. 
Thence  it  was  an  easy  march  to  the  Bloomingdale  Road,  which  was 

then  followed  with  occasional  retirement  into  the  woods,  to  escape 
the  view  of  the  British  ships  in  the  North  River.  It  is  said  thai  the 
opportunity  would  have  come  too  late  if  General  Howe  had  uot  been 
detained  at  the  house  of  a  .Mrs.  Murray,  a  Quakeress,  on  .Murray  Hill. 
As  it  was.  by  forced  marching,  hampered  by  superfluous  baggage,  ac- 
companied and  obsi ructed  by  t  he  terrified  multitudes  of  escaping  citi- 
zens, under  a  fearful  heat  which  claimed  many  a  victim  by  the  road- 
side, the  last  remnant  of  the  American  army  was  safely  removed 
from  the  city  it  had  vainly  undertaken  to  defend.    The  Americans 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


213 


now  camped  on  Harlem  Heights,  and  Washington  established  his 
headquarters  in  the  Roger  Morris  mansion  (now  called  (lie  Jumel 
mansion,  and  still  preserved  on  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-first  Street 
near  St.  Nicholas  Avenue),  the  property  of  Ins  former  reputed  flame, 
Miss  Mary  Philipse,  now  1  he  wife  of  .Morris,  and  an  escaped  Tory. 

The  16th  of  September  was  destined  to  cause  a  slight  rill  in  the 
clouds  of  adversity  that  were  settling  over  the  patriot  cause.  Early 
that  morning  two  battalions  of  light  infantry  and  a  few  companies  of 
the  Forty-second  Highlanders  made  a  sally  beyond  their  lines,  which 
ran  from  Bloomingdale  Heights  to  Horn's  Hook  on  the  East  River. 
They  crossed  the  deep  depression  through  whh'h  Manhattan  Avenue 
now  runs,  and  drove  in  the  pickets  and  some  posts  on  the  extreme  line 
of  the  Americans  above  the  Point  of  Rocks.  They  pursued  the  retir- 
ing Americans  about  as  far  as  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-third  Street, 
or  where  Audubon  Park  is  now,  and  then  returned,  sounding  in  defi- 
ance a  fox-hunter's  peal  upon  their  bugles.  Washington  was  deter- 
mined to  punish  them.  Sending  out  some  troops  to  deploy  in  their 
front  in  the  plain  or  valley  north  of  Bloomingdale  Heights  (i.e.,  Man 
hattan  Avenue) to  engage  their  attention,  or  to  tempt  them  down  from 
the  hill,  he  sent  a  detachment  of  rangers  under  Colonel  Knowlton  and 
anol her  of  Virginian  t roops  under  Major  Leitch,  to  get  into  their  rear, 
by  going  around  the  heights  on  the  land  side  lor  Morningside  Park) 
and  the  river  side  (or  Riverside  Park),  respectively.  By  some  blunder 
of  an  aide  the  ascent  of  the  hill  was  made  too  soon,  so  that  the  Ameri- 
cans struck  the  enemy  in  the  flank  instead  of  in  the  rear.  Neverthe- 
less, the  British  troops  were  driven  back  to  t  heir  lines,  and  t  he  Bat  I  le 
of  Harlem  Heights  may  be  claimed  as  a  victory  for  the  patriots,  the 
"  first  one  achieved  in  a  contest  with  the  enemy  in  the  open  field.  It 
cheered  the  army  of  Washington,  restoring  some  of  that  confidence 
which  the  occurrences  of  the  few  previous  weeks,  and  especially  of 
the  day  before,  had  brought  to  a  very  low  ebb.  Yet  it  cost  the  lives 
of  two  valuable  officers,  the  two  leaders  of  the  expedition,  Colonel 
Knowlton  and  Major-  Leitch.  They  fell  almost  side  by  side,  about 
where  One  Hundred  and  Nineteenth  Street  runs  now,  and  bet  ween 
Ninth  and  Tenth  Avenues.  Recently  the  spot  has  been  marked  by  a 
memorial,  although  some  time  before  a  tablet  was  placed  in  One  Hun- 
dred and  Fifty-fifth  Street,  near  where  the  slight  preliminary  affair  of 
the  morning  took  place,  and  which  has  been  often  mistaken  by  writ- 
ers for  the  real  battle  of  Harlem  Heights.  Knowlton  died  almost 
immediately.  Leitch  lingered  till  nearly  October.  From  the  Point  of 
Rocks,  at  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-sixth  Street  and  Ninth  Avenue, 
Washington,  attended  by  Putnam.  Greene,  and  Clinton,  watched  the 
engagement,  stimulating  the  men  to  do  their  best  under  the  eyes  of 
the  Commander-in-Chief.  A  week  later,  on  September  24,  the  Ameri- 
cans took  advantage  of  a  very  dark  night  to  deal  the  enemy  a  blow  in 
another  quarter.    On  Montressor  (now  Randall's)  Island  the  British 


21 -J 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


had  located,  as  a  place  of  security,  a  jjoodly  quantity  of  ammunition 
and  other  stores.  Major  Henley,  aide-de-camp  to  General  Heath, 
commanding  ;it  Kind's  Bridge  and  alonj;  the  Westchester  side  of  the 
Barlem,  knew  of  this.  Being  familiar  with  the  vicinity,  he  offered  to 
guide  a  battalion- of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  under  Colonel  Jack- 
son to  the  island.  The  surprise  would  have  been  complete  in  the 
darkness  had  not  a  careless  soldier  discharged  a  gun  too  soon.  The 
alarm  having  thus  been  given,  the  enemy  quickly  manned  the  earth- 
works, numbering  at  least  five  hundred  men.  The  case  of  the  patriots 
was  now  desperate,  but  they  boldly  attacked  the  superior  force  be- 
hind t  heir  breastworks.  They  were,  of  course,  repulsed.  Ma  jor  Hen- 
ley and  twenty-two  men  were  killed,  but  they  retired  in  good  order 
from  the  island,  taking  with  them  the  Major's  body,  which  w  as  buried 
by  the  side1  of  Colonel  Knowlton's. 

Lord  Howe,  with  his  accustomed  deliberation,  undertook  no  deci- 
sive movement  against  Washington  until  October  12.  His  purpose  was 
to  gel  into  the  patriot  army's  rear.  Accordingly,  transports  with 
troops  were  sent  through  Hell  Gate,  and  on  the  18th  a  large  force 
was  landed  near  New  Rochelle.  But  Washington  had  been  advised 
of  the  movement,  and  marched  toward  the  Bronx  River.  The  Brit- 
ish then  proceeded  northward,  and  Washington  on  the  west  side  of 
I  he  Bronx  marched  up  in  a  line  parallel  to  theirs.  The  result  of  these 
maneuvers  was  the  engagement  at  White  Plains,  on  October  28,  1776, 
a  drawn  battle,  but  with  all  the  force  and  effect  of  a  victory  for  the 
Americans.  When  Washington  left  Manhattan  island  he  stationed  a 
considerable  force  under  Colonel  Majraw  in  Fort  Washington,  over- 
looking the  Hudson  River.  11  was  much  against  his  own  judgment, 
but  he  was  overruled  by  the  advice  of  his  generals,  Greene  tftnong 
them;  his  counsel  being  to  abandon  all  posts  on  the  island,  or  wher- 
ever in  the  way  of  the  enemy's  overwhelming  forces,  as  they  could 
not  be  held  by  the  undisciplined  troops,  and  a  more  effective  warfare 
could  be  carried  on.  more  adapted  to  the  condition  of  the  American 
army.  Events  justified  Washington's  idea.  On  November  15,  177t'». 
the  British  troops  under  Percy  Knyphausen,  Cornwallis,  and  Bald, 
the  leading  officers  of  their  army,  invested  the  fort  on  all  sides.  A 
powerful  ship  of  the  line  took  up  a  position  opposite  the  fort  in  the 
river.  The  demand  to  surrender,  on  the  alternative  of  being  put  to 
the  sword,  was  refused  with  proper  spirit,  but  when  the  attack  was 
made  il  was  but  the  work  of  a  few  hours  to  reduce  the  stronghold  to 
the  necessity  of  surrender.  This  was  made  on  honorable  terms,  but 
Over  two  thousand  six  hundred  men  wore  compelled  to  linger  in  the 
deadly  prisons  of  the  enemy,  instead  of  serving  their  country,  already 
too  sadly  lacking  in  the  number  of  defenders.  Greene  acknowledged 
the  mistake  of  not  having  abandoned  the  fort,  and  never  again  set  his 
ow  n  judgment  against  Washington's.  With  an  army  that  could  do 
no  conquering,  and  only  an  occasional  spurt  at  fighting,  brave  indeed 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


215 


to  temerity,  l>nt  utterly  without  training  for  regular  engagements,  il 
was  Washington's  greatest  glory  that  he  had  saved  this  army  from 
rapture  during  the  campaign  in  the  neighborhood  of  New  York. 

The  whole  island  of  Manhattan  was  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
enemy.  We  may  therefore  return  to  the  little  city  at  the  southern  ex- 
tremity and  see  what  was  going  on  there  under  these  new  and  start- 
ling circumstances.  Governor  Tryon  could  now  again  leave  his  float- 
ing castle  and  resume  the  reins  of  government  on  terra  firma.  On 
September  1C>,  while  the  Harlem  Heights  battle  was  going  on,  Eowe 
began  to  march  his  troops  into  the  town.  The  Tories  were,  of  course, 
in  high  feather,  and  were  very  zealous  in  marking  the  houses  of  their 
patriot  neighbors,  which  were  forthwith  confiscated  by  the  conquer- 
ors. With  gratuitous  wantonness  the  libraries  in  the  City  Hall  and 
Columbia  College  were  destroyed  by  the  soldiery.  Howe,  after  a 
while,  made  the  Kennedy  house  at  1  Broadway  his  headquarters, 
where  Clinton  also  resided  when  he  succeeded  to  the  chief  command. 
The  Beekman  house  in  Hanover  Square  was  taken  by  Admiral  Digby, 
and  was  the  headquarters  for  the  naval  force  on  the  station. 

On  Saturday,  September  21,  the  city,  now  thoroughly  English 
again,  was  visited  by  a  tremendous  calamity.  Some  drunken  fellows 
in  a  tavern  kept  in  a  frame  house  on  Whitehall  Street,  near  the  slip, 
got  into  a  brawl  and  set  fire  to  the  building.  A  brisk  wind  was  blow 
ing  from  the  southeast,  and  the  fire  spread  with  great  rapidity  to  the 
neighboring  houses.  The  fire  engines  were  found  to  be  out  of  repair, 
and  those  skilled  in  handling  them  had  left  the  city.  There  was  not 
much  water  in  the  fire  wells,  and  the  soldiery  made  but  an  awkward 
attempt  to  do  the  work  of  firemen.  Thus  the  fire  raged  practically 
unrestrained.  Tt  swept  along  the  blocks  between  Whitehall  and 
Broad  streets  as  far  as  Beaver.  There  a  shift  in  the  wind  carried  it  to 
the  west  side  of  Broadway,  carrying  down  in  the  fiery  flood  the  Luth- 
eran Church  and  the  English  School  on  Rector  Street.  Trinity  suc- 
cumbed, its  tower  surmounted  by  a  wooden  steeple  appearing  like  a 
pyramid  of  flame,  and  its  blackened  walls  soon  stood  a  rootless  and 
windowless  ruin.  St.  Paul's  Church  was  saved  with  difficulty,  but  the 
fire  sped  to  near  the  Columbia  College  buildings.  Poor  hundred 
and  ninety-three  houses  had  been  consumed.  The  blame  was  thrown 
upon  the  "rebels,"  and  tAvo  hundred  arrests  were  made,  but  nothing 
definite  could  be  proved  against  these  persons.  Tf  is  said  that  during 
the  progress  of  the  fire  many  of  the  patriotic  citizens  remaining  were 
cruelly  thrust  into  the  flames  by  the  exasperated  soldiers.  In  1T7S 
there  was  another  fire,  starting  on  Cruger's  wharf  at  tin'  foot  of  Coen- 
ties  Slip,  which  destroyed  about  fifty  houses.  The  soldiers  made  their 
inefficiency  as  firemen  so  disastrously-  conspicuous  at  this  time,  that 
an  order  was  issued  from  headquarters  forbidding  their  interference 
again. 

Far  away  from  the  scene  of  the  fire,  at  the  Beekman  conntry-seat.  at 


216 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Fifty-firsl  Streel  and  Second  Avenue,  there  was  going  mi  another 
memorable  event  of  which  the  cityhas  nowa  fitting  monument  to  keep 
it  from  forgetting.  Everything  about  military  affairs  was  so  new  and 
primitive  that  even  in  the  matter  of  secret  service  there  were  none 
1ml  crude  provisions.  Washington  was  in  need  <>r  information  about 
the  movements  and  purposes  of  Howe  after  the  battle  of  Long  1  si  and, 
and  therefore  asked  commanders  of  regiments  or  companies  to  send 
him  the  names  of  persons  willing  to  act  as  spies  or  scouts.  Anions 

 . —       ,  n~  the  names  sent  in 

was  that  of  Nathan 
Hale,  a  captain  in 

Knowlton's  Ran- 
ger's. 1 1  e  w  a  s 
about  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  tall, 
handsome,  brave, 
intelligent,  a  grad- 
uate of  1  [arvard,  a 
na  tive  of  <  Jonnecti- 
CUt.  1 1 e  was  asked 
whether  he  was 
willing  t<»  do  the 
work  of  a  spy.  and 
risk  its  ignomi- 
nious punishment, 
lie  replied  t  hat  no 
service  for  1  he  good 
of  his  country eonld 
It  e  dishonorable. 
He  crossed  over 
from  Connecticut 
to  Long  Island,  as- 
suming t  he  charac- 
ter of  a  Yankee 
Schoolmaster,  suc- 
ceeded in  gather- 
ing valuable  infor- 

STATUE  OF  CAPTAIN   NATHAN  HALE. 

mation,    and  was 

on  his  way  back  with  it  to  the  < 5ommander-in-( Ihief,  having  got  as  far 
as  Huntington  Bay,  when  he  was  met  on  the  shore  by  a  boat  from  a 
British  man-of-war.  A  Tory  relative  had  recognized  him  and  given 
the  cue  to  the  enemy.  He  did  not  deny  his  identity  or  his  mission, 
and  was  therefore  hurried  into  the  presence  of  General  Howe,  whose 
headquarters  jus1  then  wereal  the  Beekman  house  aforesaid.  There 
was  no  escape  possible,  of  course,  and  after  a  drum  head  conrl-mar- 
tial,  Hale  was  condemned  to  be  hanged  on  the  next  morning,  width 
was  Sunday,  September        During  the  nighl  he  was  confined  in  a 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


217 


greenhouse  under  guard  of  the  Provost-Marshal,  Cunningham,  who 
added  to  Ids  unhappy  situation  by  needless  and  ungenerous  cruellies. 
He  was  not  allowed  to  write  to  Ids  mother,  and  when  a  compassionate 
lieutenant  gave  him  materials  for  writing,  the  Provost  lore  up  (lie 
letter.  Both  clergyman  and  Bible  were  denied  him.  He  was  hanged 
from  a  tree  in  the  orchard,  and  Ins  body  thrust  into  an  unmarked 
grave.  All  this  was  in  painful  and  disgraceful  contrast  with  the 
treatment  accorded  the  spy  Andre"  a  few  years  later.  Nevertheless, 
posterity  has  come  to  learn  the  noble  manner  of  the  young  hero's 
death,  and  the  glorious  sentiment  uttered  by  his  dying  lips:  "  I  only 
regret  that  T  have  but  one  life  to  lose  for  my  country."  Tn  City  Hall 
Park,  at  its  southwestern  corner,  near  the  General  Pos1  Office,  and 
facing  the  busy  throngs  passing  up  and  down  Broadway  all  day. 
stands  a  bronze  statue  erected  by  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  repre- 
senting Captain  Hale,  bound  with  ropes,  ready  for  his  martyrdom.  Tt 
was  cast  in  Paris,  modeled  by  the  American  sculptor,  McMonnies,  and 
in  the  Salon  of  1891  received  a  gold  medal.  The  unveiling  took  place 
on  November  25 — "  Evacuation  Day  " — 1893. 

The  echoes  of  events  during  the  progress  of  the  Revolution  in  other 
parts  of  the  country  occasionally  penetrated  to  the  ears  of  the  citizens 
of  New  York.  But  their  chief  evidence  of  whal  was  going  on  lay  in 
the  details  of  prisoners  brought  in  occasionally  after  some  defeat  of 
the  patriots.  Sugar  houses,  churches,  prison-ships,  the  jail  on  the 
Commons,  all  swarmed  with  prisoners,  and  their  treatment  was  so 
horrible  that  it  seems  best  to  draw  the  veil  over  it.  How  England 
can  endure  the  disgrace  of  some  of  her  actions  toward  her  open  and 
fair  handed  opponents,  from  William  Wallace  and  Joan  of  Arc  down 
to  our  Revolution,  is  more  than  we  can  understand.  Besides  the  un- 
speakable miseries  inflicted  upon  prisoners,  whereby  the  civilized  and 
Christian  Britons  easily  outdid  the  worst  cruelties  of  the  denizens  of 
cannibal  islands,  they  had  other  refinements  of  cruelty  which  needed 
civilization  to  think  out.  Pains  were  actually  taken  by  the  British  mil- 
itary authorities  in  New  York  to  communicate  the  smallpox  through- 
out the  country.  Again,  when  the  prison  fever  had  been  carefully  de- 
veloped so  as  to  be  certainly  and  fatally  contagious,  they  endeavored 
also  to  infect  American  camps  with  that  disease.  Here  was  manly. 
English  fair  play  for  you.  It  is  doubtful  whether  a  more  hellish 
scheme  was  ever  concocted  in  the  purlieus  of  pandemonium.  But  it 
will  not  do  to  dwell  on  these  particulars  of  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion :  it  is  too  apt  to  put  us  or  keep  us  in  a  frame  of  mind  unfavorable 
to  relations  of  amity  and  treaties  of  arbitration. 

Tn  March.  177S,  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  the  son  of  Royal  Governor 
George  Clinton,  superseded  Howe  as  Commander-in-Chief.  He  oc- 
cupied as  headquarters  the  house  used  as  such  by  General  Putnam, 
and  afterward  by  Lord  nowe.  Tt  was  from  this  house  that  Major 
Andre  went  forth  on  his  fatal  mission,  which  brought  the  traitor 


21S 


HISTORY  OF  THK  GREATER  XKW  YORK. 


Arnold  into  (he  city  late  in  September,  1780.  He  first  kept  himself 
partially  concealed  in  the  Yerplanck  house  on  Wall  Street.  Hut 
later,  after  he  had  received  Ids  commission  as  Brigadier  in  the  British 
army,  he  came  forth  more  boldly  and  took  quarters  in  the  Watts 
house,  adjoining  Clinton's.  Serjeant-Major  John  Champe,  a  sup- 
posed deserter  from  the  patriot  army,  on  the  strength  of  that  deser- 
tion gained  easy  access  to  him  there,  and  laid  his  plans  for  his  cap- 
ture accordingly.  Arnold  was  to  be  seized  in  the  garden  that  ran 
down  to  the  river's  edge,  and  carried  to  a  boat  as  a  drunken  soldier. 
Kut  fortune  again  favored  the  traitor:  just  before  the  day  fixed  for 
the  exploit  Champe's  regiment  was  ordered  south,  and  Arnold 
changed  his  quarters  to  Burn's  Coffee  House,  a  few  doors  further  up 
Broadway,  disconcerting  Champe's  confederates. 

Only  once  did  t he  war  drift  within  sight  and  sound  of  Manhattan 
Island  after  the  patriots  had  abandoned  it  to  the  enemy.  This  was 
on  the  occasion  of  the  bold  attack  made  by  Major  Henry  Lee,  "  Light- 
horse  Harry,"  on  the  fort  built  by  the  British  on  the  promontory 
called  Paulus  Hook,  now  a  part  of  Jersey  City.  It  was  a  strong  posi- 
tion. A  long  low  neck  of  land  reached  out  far  into  the  Hudson;  a  nar- 
row creek  not  fordable  at  high  tide  separated  the  promontory  from 
the  mainland,  but  a  deep  ditch  had  been  dug  besides  to  complete  the 
insulation,  and  a  drawbridge  alone  gave  access  to  the  fort  beyond, 
as  if  it  were  a  medieval  castle.  Light-horse  Harry  made  a  sudden 
dash  at  t his  bridge  at  t  he  head  of  his  troopers.  Supposing  them  to  be 
a  foraging  party  returning,  the  bridge  was  lowered.  Lee  secured 
1  59  prisoners,  with  a  loss  of  only  1  wo  of  his  own  men :  and  he  hurried 
away  from  the  spot  with  alarm  guns  from  ships  in  the  harbor  and 
from  the  batteries  in  the  city  ringing  in  his  ears.  The  date  of  this 
romantic  exploit  w  as  August  I  S.  1779. 

This  was  war;  there  were  also  occasional  "  rumors  of  war."  The 
winter  of  1779-1780  was  a  very  severe  one.  so  thai  we  Mud  in  several 
authorities  the  almost  incredible  statement  that  ice  formed  eighteen 
feet  thick  on  Lay  and  Liver.  If  W  ashington's  army  had  been  in  a 
condition  to  move  upon  New  York,  all  the  advantages  of  the  enemy, 
because  of  the  deep  waters  of  the  surrounding  rivers  and  their  naval 
forces,  would  have  served  as  nothing  against  attack.  Strenuous 
efforts  to  oppose  a  possible  attack  were  made  therefore  by  the  author- 
ities in  the  city,  the  ice  affording  a  perfectly  safe  passage  for  trains  of 
artillery  and  regiments  of  armed  men.  But  at  no  time  was  the  Coin 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  British  army  more  disturbed  than  when  Wash- 
ington was  pi  eparing  for  his  master-si  roke  against  ( 'ornwallis  in  Vir- 
ginia. Every  appearance  was  industriously  given  t<>  the  supposition 
that  New  York  was  the  intended  object  of  attack  by  the  combined 
armies  Of  France  and  America.  On  August  19,  L781,  the  inarch  was 
begun  by  crossing  the  Hudson.  So  carefully  did  Washington  keep 
the  secret  that  even  the  general  officers  imagined  that  1  hey  were 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


219 


making  a  detour  through  New  Jersey  in  order  i<>  effed  ;i  Landing  on 
Staten  Island  from  Perth  Amboy.  While  the  army  was  marching 
toward  Philadelphia,  Washington  and  the  French  officers  made  an 
ostentatious  display  of  inspecting  New  York,  riding  all  along  the 
length  of  Manhattan  Island  upon  the  Palisades  and  hills  on  the  Jer- 
sey shore,  and  freely  allowing  such  country  people  as  were  willing 
to  carry  the  news  to  cross  the  river.  Clinton  was  completely  deceived 
and  remained  inactive  until  it  was  too  late.  Then  soon  came  the 
news  of  the  surrender  at  Y'orktown,  on  October  19,  1781. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  war,  and  also  of  the  occu- 
pancy of  New  York  by  the  enemy,  although  it  look  more  than  two  full 
years  to  bring  to  pass  the  latter  event.  The  Yorktown  episode  caused 
Clinton  to  be  superseded  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  who  now  took  up  his 
residence  in  the  city.  On  September  3.  1783,  peace  was  signed  at 
Paris,  John  Jay  being  one  of  the  American  Commissioners.  On  Oc- 
tober 18  the  news  was  given  out  by  Congress,  and  on  November  2 
it  was  formally  announced  to  the  army.  On  November  19,  Carleton 
sent  word  to  Washington  that  at  noon  of  November  25  he  would 
ev  acuate  New  York,  and  that  the  outposts  in  the  vicinity  would  be 
vacated  on  the  21st.  As  the  English  Commander  was  preparing  to 
withdraw,  Washington  was  getting  under  way  to  enter  and  occupy 
the  city.  On  November  19,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  with  Generals 
Knox  and  George  Clinton,  who  was  Governor  of  the  State,  arrived 
with  their  suites  at  Day's  Tavern,  at  the  corner  of  One  Hun- 
dreth  and  Twenty-fifth  Street  and  Eighth  Avenue.  An  advance 
guard  of  the  Americans  had  already  taken  post  at  McGowan's 
Pass  in  Central  Park,  waiting  for  orders  to  move  further.  A 
British  officer  came  galloping  up  a  little  after  noon  on  the  25th, 
reporting  that  the  last  of  their  rear-guard  had  taken  their  de 
parture.  The  order  to  march  was  therefore  given,  and  the  war- 
worn veterans  of  the  War  of  Independence  once  more  marched 
through  the  city  from  which  they  had  been  driven  seven  years 
before.  Washington,  Clinton,  and  other  prominent  generals  rode 
down  into  the  city  from  Day's  Tavern  along  the  west  side  of  the 
island,  or  the  Bloomingdale  and  Greenwich  roads,  the  two  former 
taking  up  their  quarters  at  Cape's  Tavern  on  Broadway,  afterward 
the  City  Hotel,  on  the  corner  of  Cedar  Street.  The  army  marched 
down  the  Boston  and  Bowery  roads,  into  Queen  (Pearl)  Street,  to 
Wall,  to  Broadway,  and  then  lined  up  along  Broadway  on  both  sides, 
from  the  vicinity  of  Washington's  quarters  to  the  fort.  Biding  with 
Clinton  between  the  lines  of  the  troops,  Washington,  followed  by  his 
main  guard,  rode  down  Broadway  to  Fort  George,  and  took  formal 
possession  of  the  city  in  the  name  of  the  new  nation  so  long  defrauded 
of  its  possession,  while  the  American  flag  was  again  flung  to  the 
breeze.  It  is  told  by  some  historians  that  the  British  in  retiring  had 
removed  the  halyards  and  had  nailed  the  Royal  Ensign  to  the  top. 


220 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Carleton  could  hardly  have  permitted  sncli  a  gross  breach  of  decorum 
iidi  only,  hut  of  faith.  The  flag  must  have  been  promptly  hauled 
down  at  noon.  But  some  over-zealous  loyalisl  may  have  cut  the  lines, 
and  greased  the  pole.  A  young  sailor  by  the  name  of  Van  Arsdale 
soon  found  a  war  put  of  the  dilemma;  procuring  nails  and  cleats  he 
hammered  and  clambered  his  way  up,  rigged  ;t  new  set  of  halyards, 
and  as  the  stars  and  stripes,  thirteen  of  each  at  that  time,  were 
hauled  aloft,  thirteen  guns  saluted  the  emblem  of  independence,  and 
shouts  and  huzzas  from  the  thousands  of  spectators  and  soldiers 
sup] demented  t  he  more  military  lienors.  A  few  days  later  due  honors 
were  paid  also  to  the  civic  authorities  in  the  person  of  the  Governor 
of  the  State.    Governor  Clinton,  accompanied  by  Washington,  re- 


*■ 


CIVIC  RECEPTION  TO  WASHINGTON    AND  CLINTON. 

paired  to  Bull's  Head  Tavern  on  the  Bowery  Road,  near  where  the 
Bowery  Theater  mow  the  Thalia)  stood  later.  A  party  of  citizens  on 
horseback  assembled  at  Bowling  Green,  and  with  General  Knox  at 
their  head  rode  to  the  Mull's  Head.  At  the  Tea  W  ater  Pump  (comer 
of  Roosevelt  Street  and  Park  Row)  a  party  of  persons  on  font  awaited 
them,  and  joined  the  procession.  They  formed  in  open  ranks  near  the 
tavern,  and  Governor  Clinton  and  Washington  rode  in  bet  ween  t  hem. 
At  the  same  time  a  large  number  of  returned  exiles  had  formed  into 
a  procession  and  marched  between  the  ranks  of  the  citizens.  Eighl 
persons  on  horseback  and  as  many  on  fool  preceded  the  Governor 
and  General,  who  were  also  flanked  by  citizens  mounted  and  on  foot. 
Thus  they  marched  down  the  Bowery,  into  Park  Row,  into  Pearl  to 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


221 


Wall  and  back  to  Broadway  and  the  City  llotel  (Cape's  Tavern).  On 
December  5,  Admiral  Digby,  with  the  last  of  the  troops  and  loyalist 
n  I  n  noes  on  board  his  fleet,  left  the  anchorage  oil'  Staten  Island  in  the 
Lower  Bay,  and  the  last  vestige  of  British  occupation  was  removed 
from  ili<-  sight  and  hearing  of  New  York  people. 

And  by  that  time  they  had  also  seen  the  last  of  Washington  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  patriot  army.  Alter  the  military  and 
civic  receptions  he  had  taken  up  his  abode  a1  his  favorite  hostelry 
on  the  corner  of  Broad  and  Pearl  (Queen)  streets.  Sam  Fraunce's 
Tavern,  liere  in  the  "  Long  Boom,"  still  preserved  (although  slight- 
ly the  worse  for  the  smell  of  beer  at  presem),  he  called  his  officers 
together  on  December  4.  1783,  for  a  word  of  farewell.  In  several 
books  one  may  read  Colonel  Tallmadge's  description  of  the  heart- 
rending scene,  and  no  summary  can  do  justice  to  this  vivid  account 
of  one  who  saw  and  felt  all  that  belonged  to  the  important  occasion. 
It  will  therefore  bear  repetition  here: 

"  We  had  been  assembled  but  a  few  moments  when  his  Excellency 
entered  the  room.  His  emotion,  too  strong  to  be  concealed,  seemed 
to  be  reciprocated  by  every  officer  present.-  After  partaking  of  a 
slight  refreshment  in  almost  breathless  silence,  the  General  filled 
his  glass  with  wine,  and  turning  to  the  officers  said:  '  With  a  heart 
full  of  love  and  gratitude  I  now  take  leave  of  you.  I  most  devoutly 
wish  that  your  latter  days  may  be  as  prosperous  and  happy  as  your 
former  ones  have  been  glorious  and  honorable.'  After  the  officers 
had  taken  a  glass  of  wine  the  General  added: '  I  cannot  come  to  each 
of  you,  but  shall  feel  obliged  if  each  of  you  will  come  and  take  me  by 
the  hand.'  General  Knox  being  nearest  to  him,  turned  to  the  Com 
mander-in-Chief,  who,  suffused  in  tears,  was  incapable  of  utterance, 
but  grasped  his  hand,  when  they  embraced  each  other  in  silence.  I  i 
the  same  affectionate  manner  every  officer  in  the  room  marched  up 
to,  kissed,  and  parted  with  his  General-in-Chief.  Such  a  scene  of 
sorrow  and  weeping  I  had  never  before  witnessed,  and  hope  1  may 
never  be  called  upon  to  witness  again.  Not  a  word  was  uttered  to 
break  The  solemn  silence  that  prevailed,  or  to  interrupt  the  tender- 
ness of  the  interesting  scene.  The  simple  thought  that  we  were  about 
to  part  from  the  man  who  had  conducted  us  through  a  long  and 
bloody  war,  and  under  whose  conduct  the  glory  and  independence 
of  our  country  had  been  achieved,  and  that  we  should  see  his  face 
no  more  in  this  world,  seemed  to  me  utterly  insupportable.'1  When 
the  last  hand  had  been  pressed  in  this  silent  farewell  Washington 
waved  a  final  adieu  to  the  company  and  left  the  room,  followed  by 
the  officers.  A  line  of  soldiers  was  drawn  up  on  either  side  of  the 
w  ay  from  the  tavern  to  the  Whitehall  Slip  near  by,  where  the  depart- 
ing chief  took  his  barge.  As  he  seated  himself  and  the  barge  moved 
away  toward  Elizabethtown,  the  General  took  off  his  hat  and  waved 
a  farewell  to  the  multitudes  crowding  the  shores  and  the  tops  of  the 


222 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


neighboring  houses.  And  thus  for  New  York  closed  the  last  scene  iii 
the  eventful  history  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

Its  position  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy  throughout  nearly  the  entire 
extent  of  that  war,  had  been  peculiarly  trying.  The  tire  of  1770  had 
swept  desolation  over  no  small  part  of  it.  and  while  removing  many 
Inferior  houses  had  also  robbed  the  city  oi'  Trinity  Church  and  other 
fine  structures  both  public  and  private.  Over  a  large  portion  of  the 
burned  district  the  stricken  housekeepers  had  been  reduced  to  a  curi- 
ous device  for  want  of  funds  to  rebuild.  They  stretched  canvas 
over  the  pieces  of  wall  that  remained  standing,  and  covered  up  the 
gaping  boles  where  doors  and  windows  had  been  with  the  same  ma- 
terial. This  gave  this  section  of  the  city,  running  along  the  east  side 
of  Whitehall  Street  to  Beaver,  and  west  of  Broadway  near  and  above 
Rector,  the  significant  name  of  "  Canvastown,"  and  not  being  of  a 
savory  reputation,  the  name  became  of  somewhat  the  same  force  as 
that  of  "  Five  Points  "  at  a  later  day.  a  haunt  of  crime  and  vice,  a 
rendezvous  and  hiding-place  of  thieves  and  thugs. 

The  British  during  their  seven  years  of  occupation  had  made  sad 
havoc  among  the  churches  of  denominations  other  than  Episcopal. 
If  a  rector  of  Trinity  could  speak  of  these  sister  bodies  of  Christians 
as  "hybrid''  denominations  in  the  year  of  grace  1S1H'.  what  could 
be  expected  of  rough  English  soldiers  in  177(5?  Especially  when  they 
suspected  that  the  conflagration  which  destroyed  Trinity  had  been 
started  by  the  "  rebels. "  The  Huguenot  Church  on  Tine  Street  was 
so  badly  damaged  that  it  was  not  re-opened  for  worship  till  171M1. 
Great  sums  of  money  had  to  be  spent  on  each  of  the  three  Dutch 
Churches  South  (in  Exchange  Place),  .Middle  (on  Nassau  Street), 
and  North  tin  Fulton  Street),  before  they  could  be  used  as  of  old. 
The  pews  of  the  North  Church  were  taken  out  and  chopped  up  into 
lirowood,  a  floor  was  stretched  across  from  gallery  to  gallery,  and  on 
the  two  stories  room  made  for  eight  hundred  prisoners.  The  Middle 
Church  was  treated  in  the  same  way.  and  three  thousand  prisoners, 
the  result  of  the  actions  on  Long  Island  and  at  Fort  Washington, 
were  crowded  into  it.  Later  the  church  was  turned  into  a  riding- 
school.  The  ulass  was  knocked  out  of  the  windows,  the  floor  ripped 
up.  and  tan-bark  put  iu  its  place.  The  Brick  Church  *'  in-t he-holds." 
on  Bookman  Street,  was  tirst  made  into  a  prison  and  then  used  as  a 
hospital.  The  Friends'  House  in  Pearl  Street,  and  the  Wall  Street 
Presbyterian  (Munch  were  also  converted  into  hospitals,  and  the  Hu- 
guenoi  Churc  h  was  made  a  depot  for  military  stores.  A  member  of  the 
Middle  Church.  Mr.  John  Oothout,  saved  the  bell  donated  by  Abra- 
ham De  Poyster  and  cast  in  Holland,  by  hiding  it  carefully  in  his 
house,  so  that  in  day  it  may  be  heard  ringing  from  the  steeple  of  the 
church  at  t8th  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue. 

The  city  was  primarily  under  military  rule  as  a  matter  of  course. 
There  was  therefore  a  military  commandant  first  of  all.    This  post 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


fell  happily  to  the  lot  of  one  whose  kindly  disposition  and  suavity  of 
manner  made  him  universally  liked,  Colonel  James  Pattison,  of  the 
Royal  Artillery.  Among  his  functions  seems  to  have  been  the  grant- 
ing of  licenses  to  in  \  erns,  t  he  prohibition  of  the  shool  Lag  off  of  Area  cms 
or  fowling-pieces  near  dwelling  houses,  the  ordering  of  the  collecting 
of  moneys  for  the  poor,  and  the  giving  of  permits  for  lotteries.  This 
would  hardly  appear  to  leave  much  occupation  for  ;i  .Mayor,  yet  that 
civic  functionary  was  also  provided  to  attend  to  such  other  municipal 
affairs  as  escaped  the  hands  of  the  commandant.  David  Matthews, 
whom  we  have  encountered  on  two  occasions  before,  engaged  in  no 
very  reputable  or  patriotic  business  for  a  New'Yorker,  was  appointed 
Mayor  as  soon  as  the  British  came  in.  Mayor  Hicks,  though  a  loyal- 
ist, refused  to  remain  in  office  or  even  in  the  city,  retiring  to  his  farm 
on  Long  island.  Matthews  held  the  position  during  the  whole  time 
of  the  euemy's  occupation.  The  patrolling  of  troops  not  being  deemed 
sufficient  to  keep  the  pence  of  the  city,  the  citizens  were  compelled  to 
organize  a  watch.  Those  assigned  to  the  duty  were  punished  with 
imprisonment  and  hues  for  failing  to  appear.  Strict  regulations  were 
formulated  as  safeguards  against  brawls  and  hres:  soldiers  must  be 
in  their  quarters  by  8  p.m.,  and  all  lights  and  tires  extinguished 
throughout  the  city  by  t)  p.m.  Just  before  the  British  occupation,  in 
the  spring  of  1770,  Engineer  Christopher  Colles  had  completed  his 
waterworks,  with  reservoir  and  pumping  engine,  and  Avooden  pipes 
for  distribution,  of  which  more  anon.  But  the  British  did  not  seem 
to  appreciate  this  triumph  of  Yankee  ingenuity,  and  the  people  had 
to  go  back  to  their  brackish  wells,  or  get  the  water  from  the  Tea  pump 
carted  to  I  heir  doors.  Newspapers  coutiuued  to  be  printed  in  the 
city  while  the  soldiers  were  there.  Hugh  Gaine  issued  his  Gazette 
and  Mercury  from  the  old  sign  in  Hanover  Square,  but  he  had  now 
completely  changed  its  complexion  to  that  of  a  Tory  sheet.  Riving- 
ton  was  also  in  town  with  his  Royal  (sometimes  called  Lying)  Gazet- 
teer. In  the  autumn  of  1775  a  party  of  horsemen,  led  by  the  irrepress- 
ible King  Sears,  rode  into  town,  dismounted  before  Rivington's 
shop,  destroyed  his  press  and  carried  off  his  types  to  New  Haven. 
Next  year  he  was  appointed  printer  to  the  King,  or  public  printer, 
under  the  uewr  regime;  and  when  the  patriot  cause  seemed  likely  to 
succeed  he  began  to  cast  anchors  to  windward  by  playing  false  to  his 
present  masters  and  sending  secret  information  to  Washington.  He 
did  this  by  binding  up  sheets  containing  it  among  those  of  the  books 
issuing  from  his  press.  The  ingenious  scheme  was  never  discovered 
by  the  enemy,  and  as  a  rew  ard  Rivington  remained  unmolested  when 
other  loyalists  had  to  flee  at  the  Evacuation.  It  may  easily  be  imag- 
ined that  Holt  and  his  journal  could  find  no  safe  abiding  place  in  a 
city  held  by  the  enemy.  He  Avas  kept  moving  from  place  to  place 
along  the  Hudson  as  the  war  went  on. 

The  military  occupation  and  the  fortunes  of  war  were  not  conducive 


224 


HISTORY  OF  THK  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


(o  trade.  The  markets,  with  whose  location  we  have  liow  grown 
familiar,  were  well  supplied  with  provisions  of  all  kinds  from  the  fer- 
tile farms  of  Long  Island  and  New  Jersey,  but  the  prices  were  com 
plained  of  as  excessive.  Fish  was  furnished  in  abundance  by  the 
neighboring  waters,  as  also  the  luscious  and  gigantic  oyster.  The 
lobsters,  however,  according  to  a  writer  in  1777,  once  brought  to  the 
New  York  waters  by  a  fortunate  accident,  had  now  been  banished 
again  as  the  result  of  the  war.  "Surprising  as  it  may  appear,  since  t  he 
late  incessant  cannonading,  they  have  entirely  forsaken  the  coast,  not 
one  having  been  taken  or  seen  since  the  commencement  of  hostili- 
ties.*' There  was  a  complete  cessation  of  commercial  transactions, 
and  no  merchant  ships  arrived  in  the  harbor  except  such  as  might 
bring  supplies  for  the  troops.  .Money  w  as  scarce  enough.  The  conti- 
nental currency  was  counterfeited  by  order  of  the  military  authori- 
ties, and  industriously  circulated  through  the  surrounding  country. 
Hugh  Game's  Gazette  contained  an  advertisement  in  its  issue  of  April 
14,  1777.  to  the  following  effect:  "  Persons  going  into  other  colonies 
may  be  supplied  with  any  number  of  counterfeit  Congress  notes,  for 
t  he  price  of  ( he  paper  per  ream.*'  A  not  very  honorable  mode  of  war- 
fare, though  less  fiendish  than  that  of  propagating  smallpox  ami 
prison-fever,  it  crippled  the  power  of  Congress  and  its  army.  At  the 
end  of  1  77S  t  he  "  Continental  "  paper  dollar  was  worth  Hi  cents  in  t  lie 
north  and  L2  cents  south.  Before  the  close  of  1780  ft  required  ten 
paper  dollars  to  make  one  cent.  At  Boston  Indian  corn  sold  for 
$150  a  bushel.  Butter  was  quoted  ;it  $12  per  pound,  tea  at  $90,  sugar 
$10,  coffee  $12,  beef  $8.  A  barrel  of  flour  needed  a  fortune  of  $l.r>7:> 
to  purchase.  The  patriot  leader,  Samuel  Adams,  bought  a  hat  and 
a  suit  of  clothes  at  the  modest  price  of  $2,000.  The  counterfeit-print- 
ing at  New  York  bad  doubtless  Indited  much  to  bring  about  this  con 
dition  of  the  American  currency. 

The  social  life  of  the  city  during  this  period  was  that  of  a  military 
camp.  The  soldiery  ruled  everywhere;  they  even  stole  the  hearts  of 
maidens  whose  lovers  were  away  from  town  lighting  for  country. 
The  talented  young  officers  took  care  there  should  be  theatrical  en- 
tertainments, in  which  they  themselves  performed  the  parts,  and  the 
proceeds  from  which  were  devoted  to  the  widow  s,  children,  or  female 
relatives  <d'  soldiers  killed  in  the  war.  For  the  rank  and  tile  there 
were  the  coarser  amusements  of  bull-baiting,  dog-lights,  and  cock- 
fights. There  were  also  literary  exercises  at  the  meetings  of  a  sort  of 
social  club.  At  one  such  meeting  at  the  bouse  of  a  Mr.  Deane  in  1 77(.» 
the  fated  .Major  Andre*  read  a  poem  of  his  own  composition.  The 
bands  were  brought  out  at  regular  times  and  made  to  give  open-air 
concerts  opposite  Trinity  Churchyard,  while  gallants  promenaded  up 
and  down  Broadway  with  their  ladies,  or  the  ladies  sat  in  the  rooms 
of  a  house,  especially  set  apart  for  t  hem.  facing  t  he  music.  When  vic- 
tories were  gained  over  the  "rebels,"  fireworks  and  illuminations 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


225 


celebrated  the  event.  Oil  Queen's  and  King's  birthdays,  also,  the 
town  was  put  into  gala  attire  by  day  and  by  night.  An  occasional 
duel  between  quarrelsome  officers  furnished  a  social  sensation.  But 
while  the  officers  and  soldiers  took  care  to  have  a  good  time,  the  ordi- 
nary citizen,  no  matter  how  good  a  loyalist,  did  not  get  much  com- 
fort out  of  the  military  situation.  It  was  hard  to  make  a  living;  sen- 
tries and  prohibitions  met  them  on  every  hand  to  hamper  the  freedom 
of  their  movements,  to  prevent  even  their  share  in  the  amusement 
going  on.  The  people  suffered  greatly  during  the  severe  winter  of 
1779-1780.  There  was  scarcity  of  food  and  fuel  both;  it  was  stated 
by  some  that  |50  would  not  feed  a  family  for  two  days,  so  dear  were 
provisions.  The  Commander-in-Chief  had  to  order  the  breaking  up 
of  a  few  transports  so  as  to  obtain  firewood,  while  not  a  few  persons 
cut  up  their  very  furniture  for  burning.  Even  Baroness  Riedesel,  the 
wife  of  a  Hessian  General,  comfortably  quartered  at  Beekman's 
country-seat  (Fifty-first  Street  and  Second  Avenue),  had  experiences 


THE  BRITISH   EVACUATING  NEW  YORK,  1783. 


of  an  unpleasant  nature  during  that  dreadful  winter.  Awakening  one 
morning  "we  found  ourselves  shut  up  by  the  snow;  and  in  some  places 
where  the  wind  had  thrown  it  together  in  large  drifts,  it  was  eight 
feet  deep.  We  had  a  difficult  task  to  provide  for  our  dinner.  An  old 
white  fowl  furnished  us  with  a  broth,  which,  with  a  few  potatoes  the 
gardener  gave  us,  served  for  the  dinner  of  more  than  fourteen  per- 
sons." 

It  is  pleasant  from  amid  the  black  abyss  of  obloquy  to  which 
should  be  consigned  the  perpetrators  of  the  cruelties  to  the  American 
prisoners,  and  the  responsibility  for  which  rests  upon  every  British 
officer  with  any  word  of  authority  in  New  York,  to  rescue  the  names 
of  two  men  who  were  conspicuous  for  their  compassion.  One  of  these 


220 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


was  Andrew  Elliot.  He  was  Lieutenant-Governor,  as  James  Fob- 
ertson  was  Governor  of  the  Province,  by  a  sort  of  legal  fiction  thai 
had  a  shadow  of  reality  only  in  New  York  City,  and  possibly  also  in 
the  counties  on  Long  Island  and  Staten  Island.  In  17(>3  Elliot  had 
been  appointed  Collector  of  the  Fort,  and  had  come  to  reside  in  New 
York.  He  had  a  country  residence  at  "  Minto,"  on  Fourth  Avenue  and 
Tenth  Street,  where  the  Stewart  building  was  erected  later.  He  sig- 
nalized himself  by  the  many  kind  services  he  rendered  the  prisoners 
of  war  in  the  city.  He  left  with  other  loyalists  in  1783.  but  his  prop- 
erty  was  not  confiscated.  In  1790  he  was  offered  the  post  of  Minister 
from  England  to  the  United  States,  but  declined.  He  was  a  relative 
of  the  Scottish  Earl  of  Minto.  The  other  exception  to  the  rule  of 
savagery  was  a  private  citizen.  Andrew  Hammersley,  a  merchant 
having  his  store  and  residence  on  Hanover  Square.  He  acted  the 
part  of  an  angel  of  mercy  among  the  prisoners,  giving  his  time  to  acts 
of  philanthropy,  since  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do  in  the  way  of 
business.  It  is  well  that  Hammersley  Square  in  New  York  perpetu- 
ates a  name  so  worthy  of  remembrance,  although  the  street  that  once 
bore  his  name  does  so  no  longer. 

In  view  of  the  recent  celebration  of  Queen  Victoria's  diamond  ju- 
bilee, or  sixty  years'  reign,  it  will  not  do  to  omit  to  notice  the  visit  to 
our  city  of  her  immediate  predecessor  on  the  throne,  King  William 
IV.,  her  bachelor  uncle.  He  came  to  New  York  in  September.  1781. 
as  Duke  of  Clarence,  and  with  no  prospect  of  ascending  the  throne,  as 
he  was  the  second  son  of  George  III.  lie  was  then  16  years  of  age. 
and  serving  as  midshipman  on  board  oue  of  Admiral  Digby's  vessels, 
but  while  here  was  quartered  with  the  Admiral  in  the  Beekman  house 
on  Hanover  Square.  There  are  accounts  of  his  skating  on  various 
ponds  in  the  city  in  a  familiar  manner  with  the  young  men  of  the  city. 
One  bold  and  perhaps  a  little  imaginative  chronicler  has  a  thrilling 
narrative  of  Prince  William  skating  on  the  Collect  Fond  with  young 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  later  famous  as  a  poet,  and  of  his  being  saved 
from  falling  through  the  ice  by  the  embryo  poet's  dexterity.  We 
learn  from  an  autograph  letter  of  Admiral  Nelson's,  then  Captain  of 
the  Albemarle,  one  of  Digby's  fleet,  that  Prince  William  was  still  in 
the  city  in  November,  1782.  When  George  IV.  ended  his  reign  of  ten 
years  in  1830,  the  sailor  prince  ascended  the  throne,  to  make  way  for 
his  niece  Victoria  by  a  not  too  grievously  deplored  departure  from 
this  life  in  1837. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  FEDERAL  CAPITAL. 

HE  critical  period  of  American  history,"  is  what  Prof.  John 
Fiske  calls  the  years  between  the  peace  of  1783  that  se- 
cured our  independence  and  the  beginning  of  Federal  Gov- 
ernment in  1789.  He  cannot  agree  that  "  the  times  that 
tried  men's  souls  are  over,"  as  Thomas  Paine  wrote  when  he  heard 
the  news  of  the  treaty  of  peace  between  England  and  the  United 
States.  It  was  just  during  those  years  that  the  test  was  applied  and 
endured  which  proved  of  what  stuff  the  American  patriots  were 
made.  It  looked  often  enough  as  if  independence  or  nationhood  were 
a  gift  too  much  for  them,  a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing,  because  they 
did  not  have  the  capacity  to  use  it. 

And  first  of  all  there  was  to  be  the  readjustment  of  relations  be- 
tween those  who  had  not  been  of  one  mind  in  the  struggle  that  was 
past.  Brethren  and  neighbors  and  fellow-citizens  that  had  stood  on 
different  sides  upon  the  question  of  the  assertion  of  rights  against 
the  aggressions  of  a  lawful  but  despotic  sovereign,  could  not  again  so 
easily  amalgamate  into  a  harmonious  or  homogeneous  community. 
The  sufferings  in  blood  and  in  goods  had  been  too  severe  on 
either  side  to  make  forgiveness  and  forbearance  easy,  when  they 
were  thrown  once  more  together  in  the  daily  intercourse  of 
town-life.  In  New  York  there  was  a  clash  of  conflicting  inter- 
ests and  hatreds  as  everywhere  else;  but  in  no  place  had  the  Eng- 
lish and  the  Tories  held  sway  so  complete  and  so  long-continued. 
In  no  place  had  the  problem  of  the  readjustment  of  relations 
been  delayed  till  so  late  a  date.  It  is  stated  by  some  authorities 
that  in  apprehension  of  the  retaliations  in  store  for  them,  over 
twenty-nine  thousand  of  the  loyalist  inhabitants  left  the  city 
with  the  retiring  troops.  One  can  hardly  imagine  how  so  many  peo- 
ple of  that  party  could  have  been  found  in  the  city,  or  how  in  depart- 
ing any  inhabitants  of  the  other  party  could  have  been  left.  They 
were  given  free  transportation  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  some  aid  besides 
in  starting  anew  in  their  untried  surroundings.  Some  of  the  patriot 
exiles  began  to  return  before  the  evacuation,  but  kept  themselves 
very  quiet  then.  Those  with  money  in  their  pockets  were  enabled  to 
make  excellent  bargains  at  the  incessant  auction  sales  or  vendues 
going  on  everywhere  in  anticipation  of  the  forced  departure  from  the 
city.    They  could  not  generally  prevail  upon  former  slaves  to  pass 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


22<) 


again  under  their  former  ownership.  These  creatures  seemed  to  have 
a  notion  that  "  Novy  Koshee  "  was  an  El  Dorado  and  land  of  freedom, 
and  they  were  eager  to  accompany  their  new  masters  thither.  Per- 
haps the  large  figure  given  above  included  persons  from  other  parts 
of  this  and  neighboring  States.  Throughout  the  war,  and  especially 
as  the  enemy  were  driven  from  one  position  after  another  in  the  coun- 
try, there  must  have  been  a  constant  influx  of  loyalists  into  the  only 
considerable  place  from  which  the  British  had  not  been  dislodged,  so 
that  the  population,  if  large  enough  to  bear  such  an  enormous  deple- 
tion, must  have  been  a  factitious  one  and  not  at  all  indigenous. 

But  yet  all  the  Tory  element  was  not  eliminated.  Some  remained 
to  take  the  risks  of  the  new  regime,  or  were  perhaps  sincerely  desirous 
of  falling  into  line  with  the  new  order  of  things,  and  trying  independ- 
ence with  the  rest  of  the  nation.  There  was  danger  of  friction,  how- 
ever, whatever  might  be  their  state  of  mind;  it  was  not  in  ordinary 
human  nature  to  bear  easily  with  those  who  had  actively  supported  or 
sympathized  with  the  hirelings  of  an  oppressive  royalty.  A  popula- 
tion of  twelve  thousand  is  all  we  can  count  after  the  evacuation,  and 
of  these  the  minority  were  as  yet  "  poor,  despicable  Whigs."  But  more 
Avere  coming.  Three  years  later  the  population  has  already  doubled; 
and  long  before  that  the  Whigs  had  been  able  to  show  the  Tories  that 
they  were  masters  of  the  situation,  and  in  disputes  about  titles  the 
decision  was  pretty  invariably  on  their  side.  Indeed,  to  make  the  case 
of  the  Tories  still  more  precarious  in  all  questions  of  citizenship  and 
property,  a  bill  was  passed  in  the  Assembly  in  1784  disfranchising  all 
who  had  adhered  to  the  British  cause;  and  also  a  Trespass  Act  by 
which  all  patriots  who  had  been  obliged  to  leave  the  city  could  bring 
action  for  trespass  against  such  Tories  as  had  entered  or  occupied 
their  houses  during  the  British  occupation,  whether  honorably  pur- 
chased or  not.  We  need  not  wonder  at  such  extreme  measures  get- 
ting the  ready  assent  of  the  Assembly  when  we  note  that  New  York 
was  represented  in  it  by  such  lively  Liberty  Boys  as  John  Lamb,  Mar- 
inus  Willett,  and  King  Sears.  There  soon  arose  a  test  case,  the 
trial  and  issue  of  which  brought  men  to  a  somewhat  soberer 
view  of  what  was  the  right  and  wrong  of  things  under  these  difficult 
circumstances,  apart  from  the  mere  play  of  prejudice  and  party  spirit, 
however  justified  in  its  intensity  of  antagonism  to  British  adherents. 
Elizabeth  Rutgers,  a  widow,  had  fled  from  New  York  on  the  approach 
of  General  Howe  in  1776.  Joshua  Waddington,  a  rich  Tory  mer- 
chant, had  bought  the  abandoned  and  confiscated  property.  Under 
the  Trespass  Act,  in  1784,  Mrs.  Rutgers  claimed  the  estate,  and  sym- 
pathy was  universally  enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  widow.  But  the 
court  decided  that  Waddington  was  entitled  to  the  property,  both  on 
the  proper  interpretation  of  the  law  of  nations  in  general  and  of  the 
terms  of  the  recent  treaty  in  particular.  The  decision  was  a  triumph 
of  the  forensic  power  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  had  boldly  under- 


230 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


taken  to  defend  the  Tory.  ;is  John  Adams  had  defended  the  perpe- 
trators of  the  "  Boston  massacre."  His  sense  of  justice  led  him  to 
take  ihis  perilous  and  unpopular  stand.  It  so  enraged  the  Liberty 
Boys  that  a  number  of  them  formed  a  conspiracy  to  challenge  Hamil- 
ton one  after  another  in  succession  until  he  should  fall  by  the  bullet 
of  one  of  them.  But  Ledyard,  a  leader  among  t  hem,  refused  to  permit 
a  proceeding  so  altogether  unworthy.  A  war  of  pamphlets  instead 
was  carried  on  between  Hamilton  as  "  Phocion,"  and  this  Ledyard  as 
"  Mentor,"  a  species  of  battle  in  which  Hamilton  was  bound  to  win. 
Gradually  the  sense  of  right  and  justice  prevailed,  and  it  was  seen 
that  even  Tories  had  rights  which  the  laws  were  bound  to  uphold. 

Throughout  the  period  upon  which  we  have  now  come  the  name 
of  Hamilton  will  come  prominently  forward  again  and  again,  and  as 
that  of  a  citizen  of  New  Fork  it  is  specially  appropriate  that  we  take 
particular  notice  of  a  career  so  remarkable  in  itself,  as  well  as  in  its 
influence  upon  the  city  and  the  nation,  and  therefore  one  of  which 
New  Yorkers  may  be  so  justly  proud.  We  have  last  seen  him  attract 
ing  the  notice  of  Washington  as  an  artillery  officer.  He  soon  entered 
the  Commanderdn-Chief's  official  family  as  aide  and  secretary,  and 
Washington  found  his  services  as  a  writer  invaluable.  He  rose  t<> 
the  rank  of  Colonel,  and  led  the  assault  upon  one  of  the  redoubts  at 
YorktoAvn.  In  1780  he  married  Elizabeth  Schuyler,  the  daughter  of 
Major-General  Philip  Schuyler,  of  Albany.  When  active  war  was 
over  he  turned  to  the  study  of  the  law,  and  in  an  incredibly  short 
period  had  mastered  that  vast  subject  in  its  most  abstract  and  prac- 
tical branches.  In  1782,  when  scarcely  twenty-five,  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  for  New  York.  After  the  evacuation  he  settled  iu 
New  York  and  began  the  practice  of  the  law.  I  lis  moral  courage  his 
lofty  view  of  the  duties  of  his  profession,  and  his  power  as  an  orator 
and  pleader  were  all  illustrated  in  his  taking  the  side  of  the  defend- 
ant and  gaining  his  cause  in  the  famous  and  exciting  case  of  Rutgers 
vs.  Waddington.  There  was  soon  other  work  for  the  wonderful  young 
man  which  would  reveal  the  possession  of  a  still  greater  versatility  of 
genius,  and  leave  his  mark  upon  the  pages  of  a  wider  history  than 
that  of  his  own  city  or  State. 

For  the  crisis  of  the  situation  of  the  thirteen  United  States  as  a 
mere  loose  confederation  was  beginning  to  press  and  alarm  as  the 
years  sped  on.  The  country  had  its  wished-for  independence;  it  was 
no  longer  under  the  control  of  a  foreign  despot.  But  there  w  as  no 
other  control  in  the  place  id'  the  other,  and  the  independence  of  the 
thirteen  sovereign  States  was  fast  driving  them  on  toward  anarchy. 
The  bond  that  held  them  together  was  extremely  feeble,  as  exempli- 
fied in  the  utter  impotence  of  Congress,  the  only  visible  manifesta- 
tion of  that  bond.  And  this  unhappy  political  situation  was  not 
merely  an  ideal  mistake  or  abstract  evil.  It  had  most  definite  evil 
consequences  in  practical  life.    It  crippled  commerce,  it  paralyzed 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


231 


trade,  to  free  which  from  British  oppression  had  been  so  largely  the 
motive  of  the  war.  States  actually  began  to  stand  over  against 
States  in  hostile  attitude  as  if  they  were  foreign  countries.  New 
York  compelled  Connecticut  sloops  that  brought  firewood  to  report 
at  the  Custom  House  and  pay  duties;  and  New  London  merchants 
held  an  indignation  meeting  and  formed  a  non-exportation  agree- 
ment for  all  the  world  like  that  of  the  colonies  against  Britain  before 
1775.  Farmers  from  New  Jersey  with  cheese  and  chickens  and  cab- 
bages must  cross  over  from  Paulus  Hook  to  Whitehall  Slip  and  pay 
customs,  just  as  if  they  had  come  from  Londpn.  And  New  Jersey 
retaliated  by  charging  a  tax  of  $1,800  per  year  for  the  lighthouse 
on  Sandy  Hook.    This  state  of  things  meant  war  in  the  end. 

In  view  of  these  ruinous  commercial  confusions,  a  convention  was 
called  at  Annapolis,  September  11,  1786,  to  mature  trade  regulations 
between  the  States.  Only  five  States  were  represented,  and  no  effect- 
ive work  could  be  done.  But  Hamilton,  representing  New  York,  pre- 
pared an  address  which  was  adopted  by  the  fragment  of  a  convention 
that  was  there,  in  which  the  States' 
were  urged  to  appoint  commissioners 
to  a  convention  to  deliberate  not  only 
upon  commercial  relations,  but  "  to 
devise  such  further  provisions  as 
shall  appear  to  them  necessary  to 
render  the  constitution  of  the  federal 
government  adequate  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  Union,  and  to  report  to 
Congress  such  an  act  as,  when  agreed 
to  by  them  and  confirmed  by  the 
legislatures  of  every  State,  would  ef- 
fectually provide  for  the  same/'  This 
address,  prepared  by  the  young  New 
York  delegate,  led  to  the  meeting  of 
the  constitutional  convention  at 
Philadelphia,  and  the  creation  of 
"  the  most  wonderful  work,"  in  Mr. 
Gladstone's  opinion,  "  ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and 
purpose  of  man,'" — the  American  Constitution,  adopted  by  the  conven- 
tion on  September  17, 1787,  and  sent  round  for  approval  to  the  various 
State  legislatures. 

If  a  delegate  from  New  York  State  has  the  credit  of  having  initi- 
ated the  movement  resulting  so  gloriously,  the  State  itself  was  a  lag- 
gard in  accepting  that  result,  and  it  was  due  to  the  herculean  efforts 
and  marvelous  powers  of  that  same  delegate  that  she  came  into  line 
with  the  other  States  at  all.  Little  Delaware  enjoys  the  honor  of  hav- 
ing been  the  first  to  adopt  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The 
smaller  Rhode  Island  was  last  of  all.   Nine  states  were  necessary  to 


GO!  VERNEUK  MORRIS. 


232 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


put  the  instrument  into  effect.  Neither  Virginia  nor  New  York  were 
among  those  first  nine.  New  York  stands  eleventh  on  the  list,  her 
legislature  not  adopting  till  July  26,  1788.  Much  agitation  had  gone 
before  this  final  act.  The  city,  Hamilton's  home,  was  more  in  sym- 
pathy with  him  than  the  State.  As  early  as  March.  178.">.  her  mer- 
chants had  expressed  themselves  ready  to  pay  the  impost  desired 
by  Congress  for  the  meeting  of  its  interest  on  the  public  debt.  In 
vain  did  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  petition  the  Legislature  to  own 
the  authority  and  meet  the  necessity  of  Congress.  And  now  there 
was  a  strong  sentiment  in  the  city  in  favor  of  the  Constitution.  New 
York  had  the  honor  of  seeing  the  issue  from  her  presses  of  the  im- 
mortal "  Federalist"  papers,  articles  discussing  with  the  most  signal 
ability  the  various  merits  of  the  Constitution.  Holt's  Journal,  be- 
fore the  organ  of  the  radical  Liberty  Boys,  now  took  ground  against 
concentration  of  power  in  a  respectable  central  government,  in  which 
it  reflected  the  opinions  prevalent  throughout  the  State.  It  was  to 
meet  the  articles  published  therein  that  the  ''Federalist  "  papers  were 
written.  Of  the  total  number  of  eighty-five,  sixty-three  were  written 
by  Hamilton,  fourteen  by  Madison,  and  five  by  Jay,  a  few  scattering 
ones  being  the  result  of  joint  authorship.  They  were  all  signed  by 
the  pseudonym  "  Publius,"  the  first  published  in  Holt's  ■hmrtuil.  the 
remainder  in  the  Packet  and  other  papers,  sometimes  two  appearing 
in  the  same  issue,  running  from  October.  17S7.  all  through  the  winter 
and  into  part  of  the  summer  of  1788.  On  June  17,  1788,  the  New 
York  State  convention,  specially  called  to  consider  the  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  met  at  Poughkeepsie.  The  New  York  dele- 
gation contained  the  names  of  Hamilton,  Jay,  Duane,  R.  R.  Living- 
ston, and  Isaac  Roosevelt.  Then  began  a  struggle  for  a  majority  of 
votes  that  was  carried  on  with  splendid  ability  by  Hamilton,  ably  sec- 
onded by  Jay  and  Livingston.  At  the  beginning,  the  sentiment  of 
the  State  was  found  to  be  reflected  in  the  greater  number  of  the  dele- 
gates present.  Hut  at  the  final  vote  a  majority  of  three  declared  for 
federal  union  against  confederation  or  anarchy. 

This  took  place  on  July  26,  1788.  But  the  city  had  not  waited  for 
its  laggard  State.  New  Hampshire,  on  June  21,  and  Virginia,  on 
June  2o.  had  made  the  ninth  and  tenth  adopting  States,  and  thus  had 
secured  the  establishment  of  the  Federal  Republic.  Therefore,  al- 
though it  was  before  New  York  State  had  given  its  hare  majority  for 
nationhood,  the  city  fell  justified  in  celebrating  the  glorious  accom- 
plishment. At  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  23,  a  grand  pro- 
cession started  from  the  Commons,  or  City  Hall  Park.  The  route  of 
march  w  as  down  Broadway  to  Bowling  ( Jreen,  past  the  fort  on  White- 
hall Street  to  Pearl,  then  along  Pearl  Street  past  Hanover  Square, 
further  on  through  Pearl  Street  to  Park  Bow.  to  Division  Street,  to 
Broome  Street,  to  Bunker  or  Bayard  Hill,  near  corner  of  (Irand  and 
Centre.   The  procession  was  led  by  one  accoutered  as  Columbus  on 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


233 


lorseback,  and  was  divided  into  several  divisions,  each  made  up  of 
the  members  of  some  trade,  who,  on  floats,  were  busily  engaged  in  its 
peculiar  operations.  The  seventh  division  represented  the  sailors; 
they  were  carried  upon  a  miniature  ship,  full-rigged,  and  all  sails  set, 
drawn  by  ten  horses.  It  was  equipped  as  a  frigate  with  thirty-two 
guns,  and  manned  by  thirty  seamen  and  marines.  It  was  twenty-seven 
feet  long  and  ten  feet  abeam.  Its  salute  of  thirteen  guns  at  the  Com- 
mons was  the  signal  to  start.  At  about  Cortlandt  Street  a  pilot-boat, 
drawn  on  wheels  by  two  horses,  boarded  it  in  regular  nautical  style. 
Upon  the  ramparts  of  the  fort  stood  the  President  and  members  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  which  had  been  having  its  sessions  in  New  York 
for  some  time.  As  the  ship  passed  by,  a  salute  of  thirteen  guns  was 
given  in  their  honor.  It  was  appropriately  named  "  Hamilton,"  and 
was  for  some  years  preserved  intact  within  the  palings  of  Bowling 
Green.  There  were  no  less  than  five  thousand  persons  in  the  proces- 
sion, making  a  line  a  mile  and  a  half  long.  At  Bunker  Hill  a  grand 
banquet  was  spread  in  a  huge  semicircular  tent.  A  raised  semicircu- 
lar dais  held  the  tables  for  the  President  of  Congress  and  its  members; 
from  this  radiated  ten  tables,  emblematic  of  the  ten  States  that  had 
then  adopted  the  Constitution,  and  it  is  said  these  tables  accommo- 
dated all  of  the  five  thousand  people  who  had  formed  the  procession. 
Thirteen  toasts  were  given,  the  first  being  the  "  United  States."  The 
fourth  was  devoted  to  Washington,  the  fifth  and  sixth  to  the  Kings 
■of  France  and  Spain  respectively,  and  the  seventh  to  the  States  Gen- 
eral of  the  sister  republic  of  the  Netherlands.  Surely  so  magnificent 
a  demonstration  in  a  city  of  only  thirty  thousand  inhabitants  gave 
emphatic  illustration  of  the  sentiments  of  the  people  of  all  classes 
regarding  the  necessity  and  advantages  of  Federal  Union. 

It  was,  perhaps,  on  this  account  that  New  York  was  chosen  to  be 
the  first  federal  capital,  where  the  machinery  of  the  new  government 
provided  by  the  Constitution  should  first  be  put  into  operation.  To 
put  itself  in  proper  trim  for  this  impressive  contingency,  the  corpora- 
tion, now  presided  over  by  James  Duane  as  Mayor,  took  steps  to  alter 
the  old  City  Hall  building  for  the  reception  of  the  executive,  legisla- 
tive, and  judiciary  departments  of  the  nation.  Major  L'Enfant,  a 
French  engineer  who  afterward  laid  out  Washington  City,  was  en- 
gaged to  do  the  work,  which  cost  about  $(55, 000  before  it  was  com- 
pleted. The  old  building  was  by  no  means  entirely  removed,  but  the 
considerable  alteration  made  a  practically  new  structure  of  it,  now 
called  Federal  Hall.  The  basement  story  was  Tuscan,  of  no  great 
height.  On  the  second  story  four  Doric  columns  supported  a  pediment, 
not  projecting  very  far  from  the  line  of  the  front.  An  eagle  crowned 
the  center  of  the  pediment,  and  the  frieze  was  "  ingeniously  divided 
to  admit  thirteen  stars  in  metopes."  The  tablets  over  the  windows 
were  decorated  with  bundles  of  thirteen  arrows  bound  together  by  an 
olive  branch.    Kepresentatives'  Hall  was  sixty-one  feet  deep,  fifty- 


234 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


eight  wide,  and  thirty-six  high,  octangular  in  form,  with  tour  sides 
rounded  like  niches.  The  windows  were  sixteen  feet  above  the  floor 
and  eight  feet  high.  The  Senate  chamber  was  adorned  with  marble 
pilasters  and  marble  chimneys.  11  was  forty  feet  long,  thirty  wide, 
and  twenty  high,  with  an  arched  ceiling,  three  windows  in  from  and 
three  at  the  rear.  The  front  opened  on  a  gallery  twelve  feet  deep, 
protected  by  an  iron  railing,  and  furnishing  a  hue  outlook  upon 
Broad  Street.  It  was  reported  ready  for  the  occupation  of  Congress 
on  March  3,  1789,  one  day  before  thai  set  for  its  meeting  under  the 
new  constitution.    But  on  .March  4  there  was  no  quorum,  and  there 


WASHINGTON   LANDING    AT  NEW    VOKK    IN  1789. 


was  not  for  some  weeks,  so  that  the  formal  announcement  could  not 
be  made  to  Washington  of  his  election  as  President  till  nearly  the 
middle  of  April.  Then  setting  forth  for  New  York  on  the  Kith,  he 
reached  Elizabeth  Town  one  week  later,  on  April  23,  L789. 

It  had  been  arranged  l<>  meet  the  President  here,  and  convey  him 
in  state  t<>  New  Fork  City.  A  barge  handsomely  decorated  with 
colored  awnings  ami  silken  curtains  hung  in  festoons,  and  rowed  by 
thirteen  pilots  in  white  uniform,  with  Captain  Thomas  Randall  at  the 
tiller,  took  him  on  board,  with  a  committee  of  Congress.  Chancellor 
Livingston  of  the  state,  and  Recorder  Varick  of  the  city,  other 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


235 


barges,  tilled  with  eminent  personages, and  sonic  with  ladies  who  sang 
national  and  other  songs  on  the  way,  followed  in  the  wake  of  the 
principal  one.  When  off  the  Battery  a  salute  of  guns  was  fired,  and 
the  solid  mass  of  spectators  raised  three  huzzas.  Then  there  was  a 
rush  around  to  the  place  of  landing,  Murray's  Wharf,  at  the  foot  of 
WTall  Street.  All  the  vessels  in  the  East  River  were  dressed  in  holi- 
day attire,  and  a  salute  of  guns  was  again  tired  as  the  President's 
barge  approached  the  dock.  A  broad  flight  of  steps  had  here  been 
built,  thickly  carpeted  and  covered  with  bunting,  and  a  carpeted 
pathway  led  to  a  carriage.  As  Washington  stepped  on  shore  he  was 
met  by  some  of  his  old  comrades  of  the  war,  and  he  was  nearly  over- 
come with  emotion.  He  refused  the  use  of  a  carriage,  and  walked 
arm  in  arm  with  Governor  Clinton  up  Wall  Street  to  Queen  (Pearl), 
and  along  the  latter  to  the  Franklin  House  on  the  corner  of  Cherry, 
which  had  been  prepared  for  his  residence.  The  enthusiasm  of  the 
people  all  along  the  route  visibly  affected  the  President,  and  he  was 
seen  frequently  to  wipe  his  eyes.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  keep 
the  way  clear  for  the  procession.  After  resting  awhile  at  his  own 
house,  Washington  returned  per  carriage  to  Governor  Clinton's  resi- 
dence on  Queen  (Pearl)  Street,  opposite  Cedar,  the  old  De  Peyster 
house,  where  he  had  been  invited  to  dine.  That  evening  the  city  was 
ablaze  with  illuminations.  Figures  and  mottoes  in  light  were  seen 
in  the  windows, such  as  pyramids  of  candles, or  representing  buildings 
supported  by  thirteen  columns,  with  "  Vivats  Washington"  galore. 
It  rained,  but  the  streets  were  filled  with  men,  women,  and  children. 
Irving  has  preserved  in  his  history  a  passage  in  Washington's  diary 
written  at  the  close  of  that  day.  All  these  demonstrations  could  not 
keep  the  wise  and  prudent  Chief  Magistrate  from  feeling  that  after 
all  his  labors  to  do  the  best  he  could  for  this  people,  the  reverse  of  thi 
affectionate  exhibition  might  happen  with  any  change  of  whim  in  the 
fickle  multitude.  Three  days  before  this,  the  Vice-President,  John 
Adams,  had  been  met  Avith  due  honors  by  Governor  Clinton  and  a  mil- 
itary and  civic  escort  at  Kingsbridge,  conducted  to  the  house  of  John 
Jay  at  133  Broadway  (as  then  numbered),  where  he  was  entertained 
until  his  residence  at  Richmond  Hill  was  ready  for  him.  On  April  21 
he  was  received  by  the  Senate,  and  took  his  chair  as  its  presiding  offi- 
cer after  an  extempore  address,  but  without  Inn  ing  taken  an  oath  of 
office,  for  which  the  constitution  had  not  yet  provided.  He  and  the 
Senators  took  such  oath  on  June  3. 

Exactly  one  week  after  his  arrival  in  the  city,  on  Thursday,  April 
30, 1789,  occurred  the  Inauguration  of  George  Washington  as  the  first 
President  of  the  United  States.  New  York,  amid  all  her  mercantile 
triumphs  and  the  overwhelming  magnificence  of  her  wealth,  may  well 
be  proud  that  upon  her  streets  were  witnessed  the  impressive  cere- 
monies connected  with  this  august  and  auspicious  event.  It  placed 
the  capstone  upon  the  fair  superstructure  of  independence  and  na- 


236 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tionality  whose  foundation  stones  were  laid  in  the  blood  of  patriots, 
and  whose  walls  were  reared  amid  the  storms  of  party  spirit  and  amid 
the  shifting  quicksands  of  a  threatening  anarchy.  Books  and  pic- 
tures, descriptions  by  pen  and  delineations  by  pencil,  have  made  us 
familiar  with  the  scene  upon  the  "gallery"  or  balcony  of  Federal 
Hall.  The  colossal  bronze  statue  of  W  ashington  upon  the  steps  of 
the  Sub-Treasury  Building  at  Wall  and  Broad  streets,  stands  upon  a 
marble  slab  forming  part  of  the  pavement  of  that  balcony,  and  upon 
which  Washington  stood  on  that  great  day  as  he  took  the  oath  of 
office  in  the  presence  of  the  assembled  myriads  of  spectators,  crowd- 
ing Broad  Street  to  its  distant  curve.  Wall  Street  to  River  and  Broad- 
way; filling  the  windows  and  roofs  and  stoops  and  balconies  of  every 
house  commanding  a  view  of  the  scene.  At  sunrise  a  salute  of  guns 
was  fired  at  the  Battery.  At  nine  o'clock  services  were  held  in  the 
various  churches  of  the  city  with  the  exception  of  St.  Paul's,  where  a 
later  service  was  to  occur  attended  by  the  President.  At  twelve  the 
procession  to  wait  upon  the  President-elect  and  escort  him  to  Federal 
Hall,  left  the  Hall,  proceeded  to  his  residence,  where  the  General 
joined  it.  and  returned  to  the  Hall  a  little  before  one  o'clock.  Here 
the  Congress  was  assembled  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  the  Vice- 


WASHENGTON  TAKING  THE  OATH  as  PRESIDENT.  hilted  rapier. — the  peo- 
ple waited  breat  hlessly 
for  the  supreme  moment  of  the  oath-taking.  It  was  only  panto 
mime  to  most  of  that  vast  assembly,  hut  the  moving  of  the  lips, 
the  solemn  aspect  of  the  noble  countenance,  the  reverent  look  to- 
ward heaven,  the  head  bowed  as  if  in  devotion  Over  the  sacred 
book  as  he  kissed  it.  all  told  with  Incalculable  power  upon  the 
hearts  that  witnessed  the  ceremony.  A  flag  was  raised  from  the 
Cupola  of  the  Hall,  at  which  signal  guns  boomed  at  the  Battery 
and  all  the  bells  in  the  city  rang  a   joyous  peal.     A  tremendous 


] 


President  of  the  United 
States  received  Wash- 
ington at  the  door  and 
conducted  him  to  his 
chair.  About  one 
o'clock  he  stepped  out 
upon  the  balcony,  a 
Bible  was  held  upon  a 
cushion,  and  Chancel- 
lor Robert  R.  Living- 
ston, standing  on  one 
side  in  the  robes  of  of- 
fice, and  Washington 
opposite  him  in  a  dark- 
colored  suit,  white  silk 
stockings,   a  n  d  steel- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


237 


shout  burst  from  the  myriad  throats  below,  around,  above;  hats 
were  waved  and  hands  tossed  in  air,  to  which  Washington  re- 
sponded with  a  dignified  bow.  Everything  conspired,  as  an  eye- 
witness tells  us,  "  to  render  it  one  of  the  most  august  and  interesting 
spectacles  ever  exhibited  on  this  globe.  It  seemed  from  the  number 
of  witnesses  to  be  a  solemn  appeal  to  heaven  and  earth  at  once." 
When  the  Chancellor  exclaimed  "  Long  live  George  Washington,"  as 
a  signal  for  the  acclamations  of  the  multitude,  there  were  many  so 
deeply  stirred  that  they  could  not  utter  a  word  or  do  more  than  wave 
their  hats  with  the  rest.  Returned  to  the  Senate  Chamber,  Washing- 
ton read  his  Inaugural  Address  in  a  deep  voice  tremulous  with  emo- 
tion. Next  the  President  and  Congress  repaired  to  the  services  to  be 
held  in  St.  Paul's.  He  had  come  to  Federal  Hall  in  a  carriage;  he  pro- 
ceeded on  foot  to  the  church.  The  simplicity  and  modesty  of  the  great 
man  who  was  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes  that  day  may  be  noted  from  the 
fact  that  as  he  walked  to  church  he  recognized  a  citizen  of  Philadel- 
phia in  the  crowds  lining  the  sides  of  the  streets,  and  graciously 
bowed  to  him.  After  divine  service,  conducted  by  Bishop  Provoost, 
carriages  awaited  the  President  at  the  church  door,  and  he  was  es- 
corted as  before  to  his  residence  on  Franklin  Square.  Transparencies 
and  illuminations  at  night  made  brilliant  the  close  of  a  day  than 
which  none  greater  had  as  yet  occurred  in  the  history  of  America,  for 
it  is  only  the  luster  shed  back  from  it  that  makes  the  Fourth  glorious, 
only  its  completion  of  the  work  begun  then  which  makes  that  the 
birthday  of  the  nation.  There  were  fireworks  at  the  fort,  the  ships 
in  the  harbor  were  bestudded  with  lights  along  all  their  spars  and 
rigging.  The  young  nation  was  as  happy  as  its  capital  city  was  fes- 
tive. It  was  an  occasion  well  worthy  of  commemoration  on  a  magnifi- 
cent scale  a  hundred  years  after,  as  in  due  course  these  annals  wi'l 
relate. 

Nearly  a  month  elapsed  before  Mrs.  Washington  could  reach  New 
York.  On  May  27  the  President  and  an  escort  met  her  at  Elizabeth- 
town,  and  the  same  barge  with  its  crew  of  pilots  and  captain  con- 
veyed the  party  along  the  Kill-von-Kull  and  across  the  Bay  to  the 
city.  They  landed  at  Peck  Slip,  much  nearer  the  Presidential  resi- 
dence than  Murray's  Wharf  at  Wall  Street,  at  a  half  hour  past  noon, 
some  hours  before  the  party  was  expected,  and  thus  the  preparations 
for  an  escort  were  not  carried  out.  But  a  salute  of  guns  was  given  at 
the  Battery  as  the  barge  went  by.  On  May  28  the  President  gave  his 
first  dinner,  and  on  the  29th  Mrs.  Washington  held  her  first  reception. 

The  Colonial  Capital  had  now  become  the  Federal  Capital  in  good 
earnest,  and  the  effects  upon  social  life  were  soon  conspicuous.  Yet 
the  city  had  been  accustomed  to  the  gayeties  and  functions  belonging 
to  its  present  situation  for  a  year  or  two  past.  The  Continental  Con- 
gress, among  other  signs  of  its  feebleness,  had  been  a  sort  of  aimless- 
wanderer  from  place  to  place.    A  mutiny  of  unpaid  soldiers  had 


238 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


driven  it  from  Philadelphia.  It  had  awakened  the  irreverent  risibili- 
ties of  newspaper  editors  that  it  went  skipping  about  like  a  lamb, 
having  had  sessions  at  Princeton.  Annapolis,  Trenton,  and  finally  re- 
sorting to  New  York,  all  within  four  years,  from  1783  to  1787.  The 
presence  of  Congress  in  New  York  had  already  made  it  a  capital.  It 
brought  the  representatives  of  foreign  powers  to  the  city,  and  the 
heads  of  such  departments  as  there  were  under  the  inadequate  gov- 
ernment arrangements  then  in  force.  It  so  happened  thai  a  New 
York  citizen  and  his  charming  wife,  also  a  member  of  a  family  closely 
identified  with  New  York  social  life  for  generations,  were  the  center 
of  the  vortex  of  official  society  and  all  the  functions  connected  there- 
with. John  Jay  was  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs  under  the  old  Con- 
gress,  and  to  him,  as  there  was  no  chief  magistrate,  the  Ambassadors 
bad  to  be  referred,  to  be  honored  with  banquets  and  receptions,  and 
to  be  in  turn  feted  by  them.  Mrs.  -lav.  nee  Sarah  Livingston,  was 
well  adapted  to  assist  her  husband  in  these  duties,  and  their  long  resi- 
dence at  Madrid  and  Paris  during  the  Avar  and  during  the  peace  ne- 
gotiations had  given  them  excellent  training  for  their  honorable  task. 
Their  residence  was  at  133  Broadway.  There  is  no  133  at  present, 
there  being  a  leap  from  119  to  135  in  the  numbers,  both  being  at  oppo- 
site corners  of  Cedar  Street,  on  the  west  side.  A  descendant  of  John 
Jay  remembers  the  house  on  Broadway  as  one  of  granite,  double,  with 
plain  exterior,  on  the  east  side  of  Broadway  below  W  all  Street,  thus 
nearly  opposite  Trinity.  It  Avas  the  custom  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jay  to 
give  a  dinner  to  the  corps  diplomatique  on  Tuesday  evening  of  every 
Aveek,  Avhich  Avas  served  entirely  a  la  Francaise,  as  a  lively  lady  who  at- 
tended one  writes,  exhibiting  all  the  highest  European  taste.  By  a 
happy  chance  the  Jay  family  have  preserved  Mrs.  John  day  s  "  Dinner 
and  Supper  List  for  1787  and  '8."  Upon  it  appear  the  names  of  Pres- 
ident and  Members  of  the  Continental  Congress,  chiefs  and  subordi- 
nates of  foreign  legations,  prominent  and  celebrated  visitors  from 
across  the  ocean,  members  of  the  clerical  and  legal  and  medical  pro- 
fessions, and  scions  of  the  old  Dutch,  Scotch.  English,  and  Huguenot 
Colonial  families.  With  the  advent  of  an  actual  President  of  the 
United  States,  President  of  Congress  and  Secretaries  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs naturally  retired  to  the  background.  The  President's  domestic 
habits  were  simplicity  itself.  On  the  day  after  Mrs.  Washington  ar- 
rived, a  guest  says,  the  piece  de  resistance  was  a  boiled  leg  of  mutton. 
"  After  dessert  one  glass  of  wine  Avas  offered  to  each  guest,  and  when 
it  had  been  drunk  the  President  rose  and  led  the  way  to  the  drawing- 
room."  There  evidently  Avas  to  be  no  drinking  until  gentlemen  rolled 
under  the  table  in  his  house.  Eminently  patriarchal  and  delightful 
too  was  the  habit  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  himself  to  say  grace  at  the 
beginning  of  the  meal.  Hnt  for  the  public  functions  Washington  in- 
sisted on  courtliness  and  ceremony.  It  was  finally  settled  that  he  was 
to  be  addressed  as"  \  I  is  Excel  lencv."  lie  called  his  receptions  ''levees." 


240 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


much  to  the  disgust  of  the  Liberty  Buys.  His  levees  were  held  weekly 
on  Tuesday  afternoons  at  three  o'clock,  and  punctuality  w  as  a  virtue 
he  practiced  himself  and  required  of  others.  Mrs.  Washington  had  her 
receptions  on  Friday  evenings  from  eight  to  ten.  It  was  distinctly  un- 
derstood that  at  these  receptions  there  was  to  be  no  promiscuous  in- 
flux of  the  "  hoi  polloi  "j  we  are  told  that  "  they  were  select  and  more 
courtly  than  have  been  given  by  any  of  the  President's  successors. 
None  were  admitted  to  the  levees  but  those  who  had  either  a  right 
by  ofticial  station,  or  by  established  merit  and  character;  and  full 
dress  was  required  of  all."  Bitter  were  the  accusations  of  the  disap- 
pointed ones,  that  the  President  wished  to  affect  a  royal  state.  But, 
if  at  any  time,  it  was  necessary  at  the  beginning  of  our  Kepublican 
institutions  to  set  high  the  tone  of  official  dignity.  The  residence  on 
Franklin  Square  proved  too  cramped  in  room  and  too  inconvenient 
in  situation  for  these  necessary  social  events.  So  in  March,  1700, 
the  President  moved  to  the  Macomb  house,  where  now  30  Broadway 
is  located.  It  was  a  broad,  lofty  structure,  and  easy  of  access  to  all. 
The  city  was  preparing  to  build  an  executive  mansion  on  the  site  of 
the  old  fort  when  the  exigencies  of  politics  compelled  Hamilton  to 
bargain  away  the  selection  of  a  capital  elsewhere  for  far  more  solid 
beneficial  results  to  New  York  and  the  rest  of  the  country;  and  on 
August  30,  1700,  Washington  left  the  city.  On  the  28th  he  gave  his 
last  dinner,  the  guests  being  Governor  Clinton,  Mayor  Varick,  and 
the  members  of  the  Corporation.  He  assured  his  guests  he  left  New 
York  with  great  regret,  for  he  had  much  enjoyed  its  delightful  social 
life.  As  he  had  wished  them  to  keep  secret  the  time  of  his  depart- 
ure, but  very  little  ceremony  attended  the  President  and  his  wife  on 
their  way  to  their  barge,  which  lay  at  the  Macomb's  Wharf,  on  the 
North  River,  almost  in  the  rear  of  their  residence.  A  few  people  were 
assembled  in  the  vicinity,  Avho  cheered  as  the  boat  pushed  out  into 
the  stream,  and  the  authorities  caused  a  salute  of  thirteen  guns  to  be 
fired  from  the  Battery  as  the  party  came  opposite.  In  this  quiet  man- 
ner the  President  left  our  city,  destined  never  to  look  upon  it  again 
during  the  remaining  nine  years  of  his  life. 

Both  as  a  matter  of  local  pride  in  the  man.  and  for  the  important 
results  of  his  work  in  financial  and  commercial  lines,  which  have 
made  her  the  greatest  city  in  this  hemisphere,  and  the  Second  in  the 
world.  New  York  must  ever  look  with  satisfaction  upon  the  fad  that 
Alexander  Hamilton  was  made  by  Washington  the  first  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  As  such  he  was  called  upon  to  organize  the  finances 
and  the  business  of  the  country,  and  it  is  most  remarkable  that  this 
young  man  of  only  t  hirty-two  years  of  age  did  it  singly.  "So  great  w  as 
his  genius  for  organization,"  observes  Prof.  Fiske,  "that  in  many 
essential  respects  the  American  government  is  moving  to-day  along 
the  lines  which  he  was  the  first  to  mark  out."  In  the  course  of  a  year 
ho  submitted  four  reports,  on  a  national  bank,  on  the  mint,  on  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


241 


excise,  and  on  manufactures.  "  From  these  reports,"  says  Senator 
Lodge,  "  came  the  funding  system,  the  revenue  system,  the  sinking 
fund,  national  banking,  the  currency,  and  the  first  enunciation  of  the 
protective  policy.  They  carried  with  them  the  great  doctrine  of  the 
implied  powers  of  the  constitution,  and  opened  up  the  important  ques- 
tion of  internal  improvements.  So  far  as  public  policy  could  do  it 
they  laid  the  foundation  of  the  material  prosperity  of  the  United 
States.  ...  A  successful  financial  policy  meant  the  successful 
establishment  of  the  new  government.  .  .  .  He  armed  the  govern- 
ment with  credit  and  with  a  productive  revenue;  he  won  for  it  the 
hearty  good  will  of  the  business  world."  Washington  had  not  judged 
amiss  when  he  selected  his  young  friend  to  be  the  mainstay  of  his  ad- 
ministration. New  York  can  never  be  indifferent  to  the  consideration 
that  her  career  as  the  commercial  and  financial  capital  of  a  nation 
lending  the  world  in  mercantile  and  manufacturing  resources,  in  en- 
terprise and  skill,  was  made  possible  by  the  work  accomplished  in  a 
brief  term  of  office, 
w  i  t  h  o  u  t  prece- 
dents, by  one  of  her 
own  citizens. 

But  the  strength- 
ening of  the  Fed- 
eral Central  Gov- 
ernment was  seen 
with  alarm — let  us 
call  it  sincere — by 
a  great  portion  of 
the  citizens  of  the 
new  nation.  And 
out  of  this  differ- 
ence in  the  point  of 
view  grew  the  first  great  division  of  the  country  into  parties, — a 
division  which  in  a  general  way  has  continued  to  prevail  down 
to  our  day.  It  was  indeed  the  time-honored  division  into  Whigs 
and  Tories  which  had  characterized  English  politics  for  so  long 
then,  and  continued  to  do  so  for  a  long  while  after,  and  does 
still  to-day,  except  that  the  more  general  and  descriptive  terms 
of  Liberals  or  Progressives  and  Conservatives,  have  taken  their 
place  now.  Different  names  have  designated  the  two  classes  or 
parties  in  our  country.  At  that  time  the  Federalists,  the  strong 
central  government  party,  were  the  conservatives;  and  the  op- 
posite party  were  fain  to  adopt  the  awkward  cognomen  of  anti- 
Federalist,  soon  to  be  changed  into  Republicans,  and,  in  New 
York,  a  little  later  into  Democrats.  The  pity  of  it  was  that  party 
spirit  produced  at  once  all  the  bitterness  and  hatred  of  hostile  camps. 
In  New  YTork  Governor  George  Clinton  had  always,  with  his  powerful 


HAMILTON  GRA\<;i:. 


242 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


following,  opposed  the  Constitution.  He  had  been  elected  Governor 
term  after  term.  In  171)2  the  Federalists  put  John  Jay  in  nomination, 
now  Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States,  as  he  had  been  of  New  York 
State.  The  results  only  embittered  more  than  ever  the  conflict  of  par- 
ties w  hich  preceded  them.  Clinton  had  8,440  votes.  Jay  had  8.:i32,  not 
counting  the  returns  from  three  counties,  where  there  had  been  some 
technical  irregularities  about  the  appointment  of  sheriff's  or  other 
officials  charged  with  the  count.  These  three  counties  gave  a  major- 
ity of  four  hundred  votes  for  Jay.  The  question  of  the  irregularities 
was  then  submitted  for  arbitration  to  the  two  Senators  from  the  State 
in  Congress.  Rufus  King  and  Aaron  Burr.  King  decided  that  the  ir- 
regularities were  not  such  as  to  invalidate  the  returns.  Burr  sided 
with  the  canvassers  who  had  ruled  them  out.  King  was  a  Fed 
eralist.  Burr  was  an  anti-Federalist,  or  chose  to  take  that  line 
then.  George  Clinton  was  once  more  inaugurated  as  Governor. 
But  the  "counting-out  "  process  aroused  a  storm  of  indignation, 
and  Burr  sowed  seeds  that  were  to  bear  bitter  fruit.  At  the 
next  election,  in  1795,  Jay  was  again  nominated,  and  an  unques- 
tionable majority  now  carried  him  into  the  Governor's  chair. 
Clinton  not  daring  even  to  be  nominated  in  opposition.  Jay 
was  again  nominated  and  elected  in  1798,  and  finally  retired  from 
politics  at  the  end  of  his  second  term  in  1801.  During  his  second  term 
the  City  of  New  York  ceased  to  be  the  capital  of  the  State,  after  hav- 
ing served  in  that  capacity  since  the  foundation  of  the  common- 
wealth, or  for  over  one  hundred  and  seventy  years.  In  January.  1798, 
the  seat  of  government  was  removed  io  Albany,  and  New  York  was 
now  neither  a  State  nor  a  federal  capital.  It  only  remained  for  it  to 
become  the  metropolis  of  a  nation  and  of  a  hemisphere. 

When  Jay  was  elected  Governor  in  17!U>  he  was  absent  from  the 
country  upon  a  mission  of  the  greatest  import  for  the  destiny  of  the 
city  of  his  birth  and  residence,  but  which  proved  t  he  deathblow  to  his 
own  political  aspirations  beyond  his  State.  The  relations  between 
England  and  the  United  States  were  extremely  unfriendly.  The  Brit- 
ish Government  would  not  give  up  the  fortified  posts  on  the  frontiers, 
and  the  Americans  would  not  pay  their  English  creditors;  and  on 
commercial  grounds  the  two  were  seeking  to  injure  rather  than  ad- 
vance their  mutual  interests.  Washington  felt  that  this  state  of 
things  should  not  be.  and  could  only  be  remedied  by  sending  a  special 
envoy.  But  in  171»4  t he  successors  of  the  Liberty  Boys  were  wild  with 
enthusiasm  over  the  French  Revolution.  Jacobin  or  Democratic 
(dubs  were  formed  everywhere,  and  France  was  loved  with  as  blind  an 
affection  as  England  was  hated  with  a  blind  antipathy.  No  pence, 
but  war  with  the  enemy  of  France,  was  the  cry  of  the  Radicals  and 
anti-Federalists.  Yet  Washington  and  other  wise  men  saw  that 
peace  with  England  would  alone  secure  prosperity;  while  peace  with 
France  was  productive  of  no  result  but  visions  and  rhapsodies.  Jay 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


243 


was  sent  out,  secured  amicable  terms,  in  many  respects  vastly  favor- 
able to  American  commerce,  returned  home,  and  was  subjected  to 
violent  abuse,  burned  in  effigy,  denounced  as  a  traitor  who  had  sold 
his  country  to  its  arch-enemy.  At  a  public  meeting  in  New  York 
Hamilton,  trying  to  reason  with  the  people,  was  rudely  dragged  from 
his  place,  and  compelled  to  dodge  a  volley  of  stones.  Then  he  re- 
sorted once  more  to  the  political  essay,  and  finally  the  sober  sense  of 
the  people  asserted  itself,  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  took  a 
bold  and  decisive  stand  in  favor  of  the  treaty,  Washington  signed  it, 
and  its  advantages  ere  long  began  to  be  felt,tand  redounded  to  the 
honor  of  the  self-sacrificing  patriot  who  had  taken  his  political  life  in 
his  hands  in  order  to  secure  this  boon  to  his  country.  The  treaty,  as 
the  temper  of  the  British  ministry  and  people  then  was.  was  a  tri- 
umph of  diplomacy.  By  it  "  reciprocal  freedom  of  commerce  was  es- 
tablished between  the  United  States  on  the  one  side,  and  British 
North  America  and  Great  Britain  on  the  other.''  Another  foundation 
M  as  therefore  laid  for  the  commercial  greatness  of  New  York  by  the 
skill  and  devotion  to  the  nation's  interests  of  one  of  her  sons. 

On  the  very  last  day  of  the  year  1799  the  city  was  plunged  in  mourn- 
ing, and  a  funeral  processiou  was  winding  along  its  streets,  on  the 
way  to  appropriate  services  in  St.  Paul's  Church.  Washington  had 
died  on  December  14,  at  his  home  at  Mt.  Yernon.  lie  was  but  sixty- 
seven,  and  in  the  vigor  of  health  when  he  was  stricken  by  a  cold  con- 
tracted by  an  imprudent  exposure,  and,  spite  of  every  remedy  the 
state  of  medical  science  at  that  day  could  suggest,  a  malignant  and 
painful  throat  trouble  carried  him  off  in  a  few  days.  On  the  19th  the 
sad  news  was  knowm  in  New  York.  On  the  26th  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce took  steps  duly  to  honor  the  dead  patriot  by  appropriate  pub- 
lic ceremonies,  in  which  t  hey  were  seconded  by  every  other  society  oi 
association  in  the  city.  The  day  fixed  for  the  ceremonies  was  Decem- 
ber 31.  A  procession  was  formed  composed  of  civic  and  military 
dignitaries,  attended  by  mounted  troops  and  infantry  and  artillery. 
Major-General  Hamilton  and  suite  occupied  a  place  of  honor  near  the 
head.  He  was  followed  by  members  of  several  social,  political,  and 
national  associations,  representatives  of  the  banks  and  other  finan- 
cial institutions,  Begents  of  the  University,  trustees  of  Columbia, 
members  of  the  bar,  the  clergy,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State, 
the  Consuls  of  foreign  powers  in  the  city.  Twenty-four  girls  in  white 
dresses  immediately  preceded  the  funeral  urn,  which  was  carried 
upon  a  bier,  in  the  form  of  a  palanquin,  six  feet  long  by  four  wide, 
supported  upon  the  shoulders  of  eight  stalwart  soldiers;  a  horse  ca- 
parisoned in  mourning  attire  was  led  behind  the  bier,  and  members 
of  the  Cincinnati  followed  in  the  capacity  of  chief  mourners.  The 
corporation  of  the  city  and  mounted  troops  closed  up  the  rear.  In 
this  order  the  procession  advanced  to  St.  Paul's,  and  filed  into  its 
pews.   Here  BisHop  Provoost  read  prayers  and  the  office  for  the  dead, 


2-4-4  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

and  Gouverneur  Morris  delivered  an  eulogy.  Next  Washington's 
Birthday,  February  22,  1800,  President  Adams  appointed  as  a  day  of 
devotion  and  prayer  in  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead.  On  that  day 
the  corporation  and  the  Cincinnati  attended  the  Dutch  Church  on 
Nassau  Street  to  listen  to  a  sermon  by  Dr.  William  Linn,  one  of  the 
pastors  of  the  Collegiate  Reformed  Church,  said  to  be  the  most  elo- 
quent preacher  in  the  country.  One  sentence  deserves  especial  men- 
tion: "  That  calumny  which  has  sought  to  tarnish  his  fame  will  soon 
become  dumb,  and  the  name  of  Washington  be  revered  until  the  fash- 
ion of  this  world  has  wholly  passed  away.'*  A  hundred  years  have 
Dotyel  put  this  prophecy  to  shame. 

When  Washington  was  twenty-five  years  old  Hamilton  was  born; 

when  he  assumed  the 
command    of  the 
armies  of  the  republic, 
Hamilton    was  eigh- 
teen years  old.  Yet 
with  this  great  differ- 
ence   in    their  ages 
their   careers    in  the 
service  of  their  coun- 
try were  almost  ex- 
art  ly  coterminous.  In 
L798  when   the  exas- 
perating   conduct  of 
Prance   under  Napo- 
leon had  compelled  a 
declaration    of    v  a  r 
against    our  former 
ally,  and  Washington 
had  again  been  called 
to  the  chief  command, 
he  accepted  on  the  condition  that  Hamilton  be  made  senior  Major- 
General,  ranking  next  in  command  to  himself.    In  that  brief  period 
of  his  last  public  position  Hamilton  Hashed  out  one  more  scin- 
tillation of  his  versatile  genius  in  an  entirely  new  direction,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  country  and  his  city,  by  preparing  a  plan  of  defenses 
for  New  York  which  forms  the  basis  of  her  formidable  system  of  forti- 
fications to  this  day.    Tinted  with  his  chief  in  what  was  with  both 
the  last  public  service,  it  was  but  five  years  after  Washington's  death 
that  Hamilton  came  to  his  untimely  end.    We  at  once  pass  on  to  that 
across  the  intervening  years,  as  this  sad  episode  was  in  itself  the  cul- 
mination of  events  in  the  history  of  country,  state,  and  city  which 
must  have  their  record  in  narrating  it.   The  catastrophe,  occurring 
within  the  precincts  of  our  city,  constitutes  one  of  the  most  startling 
and  sensational  incidents  of  our  local  history. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


245 


We  have  already  once  or  twice  come  upon  the  name  of  Aaron  Burr. 
He  was  the  gallant  aide  who  led  General  Putnam's  forces  on  a  safe 
retreat  from  the  lower  part  of  Manhattan  Island  even  after  the  Brit- 
ish had  landed  at  Kip's  Bay.   We  have  encountered  him  as  the  United 
States  Senator  from  New  York  who  countenanced  the  infamous 
counting  out  of  John  Jay  in  1792  by  a  mere  partisan  decision.  The 
man  is  a  problem  in  heredity.   His  father  was  the  Bev.  Aaron  Burr, 
widely  respected  as  a  godly  minister  and  profound  scholar.  Presi- 
dent of  Princeton  College.    His  mother  was  the  choicest  flower  of  a 
choice  family,  the  daughter  of  the  celebrated  theologian  and  revival- 
ist, Jonathan  Edwards.   Both  parents  died  while  their  child  was  but 
a  few  years  old,  and  somehow  or  somewhere  he  received  a  moral  or 
religions  twist  which  unbalanced  his  character.    Burr  left  the  army 
before  the  war  was  quite  over,  studied  law  at  Albany,  and  began 
practice  in  New  York  some  time  before  Hamilton.    Both  young  and 
both  brilliant,  in  professional  and  social  circles  they  constantly  met 
on  the  best  of  terms.    Burr  was  almost  always  in  financial  straits, 
and  coming  to  Hamilton  in  distress  at  one  time,  the  latter  was  instru- 
mental in  raising  a  loan  of  ten  thousand  dollars  among  his  friends. 
They  were  together  in  the  famous  Sands  case,  a  young  lady  mysteri- 
ously murdered  whose  lover  was  accused  of  the  crime.   Burr's  plead- 
ings, joined  to  Hamilton's  skill  in  sifting  evidence,  procured  a  verdict 
of  "  not  guilty  "  from  the  jury  after  but  four  minutes'  deliberation 
On  Mrs.  Jay's  "  dinner  list  "  mentioned  above,  their  names  are  con- 
stantly together.   But  political  differences  gradually  alienated  them, 
and  led  to  a  bitter  hostility  not  to  be  appeased  except  by  murder  of 
the  genteel  sort  called  dueling.   Burr's  political  management,  as  well 
as  undoubted  abilities,  joined  with  his  unscrupulousness,  had  caused 
him  to  forge  ahead  steadily,  until,  as  is  well  known,  at  the  Presiden- 
tial election  of  1800,  Jefferson  and  Burr  came  out  at  the  head  of  all 
other  candidates,  with  73  electoral  votes  to  the  credit  of  each.  This 
tie  vote  threw  the  election  into  the  hands  of  the  House  of  Bepresent- 
atives.  Burr  knew  he  was  not  wanted  for  President  by  his  party,  but 
he  waited  the  chances  of  the  vote  in  the  House.   Thirty-seven  ballots 
were  cast,  when  the  Presidency  finally  went  to  Jefferson,  because  one 
Federalist  from  Delaware  voted  for  him  upon  the  advice  of  Hamilton, 
who,  while  disliking  Jefferson  and  his  political  principles  much,  had 
much  more  distrust  of  the  moral  character  of  Burr.   Four  years  later 
the  anti-Federalists  showed  what  they  thought  of  Burr  for  having 
sought  to  supplant  their  idol  Jefferson  by  not  even  nominating  him, 
George  Clinton  being  taken  instead,  and  elected  Vice-President. 
There  happened  to  be  due  an  election  for  Governor  of  New  York  that 
same  year,  1804,  and  Burr  conceived  the  idea  that  here  was  an  oppor- 
tunity for  "  vindication,"  as  the  modern  political  phrase  has  it.  He 
would  ran  for  Governor  of  his  State  to  offset  the  snub  on  the  field  of 
national  politics.   His  own  party,  having  just  set  him  aside  for  Clin- 


246 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


ton,  would  not  nominate  him.  He  had  a  mind  to  court  the  favor  of 
the  Federalists,  for  he  was  not  very  fixed  in  his  political  faith  so  long 
as  personal  ends  were  to  be  gained,  but  his  overtures  were  not  ac- 
cepted. Then  he  resorted  to  the  expedient  of  running  himself  as  an 
independent,  self-nominated  candidate.  His  popularity  might  draw 
many  away  from  the  anti-Federalists,  and  divided  counsels  might 
cause  some  of  the  Federalists  to  swell  his  vote  and  carry  him  to  vic- 
tory. The  Federalists,  however,  were  kept  from  aiding  this  scheme 
by  the  same  warning  voice  that  had  prevented  them  from  defrauding 
Jefferson  of  the  Presidency  his  party  had  intended  for  him.  Hamilton 
again  crossed  Burr's  path,  and  he  was  left  stranded  a  political  wreck. 

A  deadly  hostility  now  took  possession  of  Burr's  unscrupulous  na- 
ture. Hamilton  must  be  put  out  of  his  way,  and  the  duel  was  a  con- 
venient cover  for  murderous  vengeance.  His  cast-  was  desperate. 
Should  Hamilton's  bullet  lay  him  low,  his  condition  could  scarce  be 
worse  than  it  was  now.  being  politically  dead.  Should  Hamilton  fall 
Burr  might  hope  to  rise  again  over  opponents  less  formidable.  <  >cca- 
sion  for  quarrel  was  readily  found.  A  second-hand  report  of  a  conver- 
sation was  seized  upon,  and  an  explanation  demanded.  Xeit  her  Ham- 
ilton nor  the  hearers  could  remember  the  precise  words  or  statement 
objected  to.  The  groundlessness  or  irrelevance  of  such  a  position  was 
earnestly  pointed  out  by  Hamilton,  whose  personal  bravery  was  genu- 
ine and  unquestioned,  but  who  honestly  sought  to  avoid  t  he  duel,  as  it 
was  a  practice  he  disapproved  of.  The  words  forming  the  basis  of 
the  quarrel  were  those  of  a  Dr.  Cooper,  who  was  reported  in  a  news- 
paper to  have  said:  "  1  could  detail  to  you  a  still  more  despicable 
opinion  whic  h  General  Hamilton  has  expressed  of  .Mr.  Burr."  Ham- 
ilton asked:  "  How  shall  1  annex  any  precise  idea  to  language  so  in- 
definite? Bow  could  you  be  sure  thai  even  this  opinion  had  exceeded 
the  bounds  which  you  would  yourself  deem  admissible  be1  ween  politi- 
cal opponents?  "  If  Burr  had  had  any  other  than  a  murderous  intent 
he  would  have  acknowledged  the  force  of  these  considerations.  The 
writer  was  told  by  t  he  grandson  id'  one  of  t  he  members  of  t  he  ( 'incin- 
nati  who  was  at  the  society's  dinner  on  duly  4.  L804,  exactly  a  week 
before  the  fatal  duel,  that  his  grandfather  had  often  assured  him 
thai  if  t  he  members  had  known  of  t  he  duel  and  its  circumstances, they 
would  never  have  suffered  it  to  take  place.  This  proves  that  no  very 
serious  point  of  honor  was  involved,  and  that  Hamilton's  explanation 
was  amply  satisfactory,  or  else  the  customs  of  the  day  and  the  feel- 
ings of  gentlemen  and  soldiers  would  not  have  permitted  them  to  in- 
terfere. 

To  a  person  accustomed  to  note  dates  of  important  events  in  the 
more  or  less  distaid  past,  the  days  July  1  1  and  L2  will  never  be  with- 
out a  sad  interest.  A  resident  of  New  York  especially  should  not 
let  them  pass  by  Withoul  a  thought  of  the  event  which  has  made  t  hem 
memorable.    For  on  July  11,  1804,  Hamilton  and  Burr  met  on  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


247 


fatal  ground  at  Weehawken,  and  on  July  L2  Hamilton's  great  agony 
ended  in  death.  On  the  morning  of  July  11,  shortly  after  dawn,  two 
boats  were  crossing  the  Hudson  simultaneously,  bound  for  a  point  on 
its  western  shore,  about  opposite  Fifty-sixth  Street.  One  came  from 
a  northerly  direction,  for  Hamilton  was  then  staying  with  his  family 
at  the  Hamilton  Grange,  a  house  still  preserved,  although  moved  a 
little  distance  from  its  former  situation.  It  now  adjoins  closely,  and 
is  in  use  as  the  rectory  of  St.  Luke's  Episcopal  Church,  on  the  corner 
of  Convent  Avenue  and  One  Hundred  and  Forty-first  Street.  Thir- 
teen plum  trees  planted  by  Hamilton's  own  hand  are  standing  near 
the  house,  surrounded  by  a  fence,  the  spot  having  been  purchased  by 
a  New  York  gentleman  to  prevent  the  removal  and  destruction  of  this 
sacicd  landmark.    The  other  boat  came  from  a  southerly  direction, 


THE   H  AM  I LTON-BUKR  DUEL. 


Burr  then  occupying  the  country  seat  of  Richmond  Hill,  once  Wash- 
ington's Headquarters,  and  Vice-President  Adams's  residence  while 
in  >>'ew  York,  on  the  corner  of  Varick  and  Charlton  streets.  The 
dueling  ground  at  Weehawken  was  Avell  adapted  to  its  sinister  pur- 
pose, and  was  often  utilized  by  gentlemen  whose  honor  must  seek 
satisfaction  at  the  point  of  pistol  or  sword.  It  was  a  place  of  omi- 
nous association  and  sad  foreboding  for  Hamilton,  for  here  only  three 
years  before  his  eldest  son,  Philip,  had  been  shot  down  at  the  age  of 
twenty,  charged  by  his  father  not  to  shoot  at  his  opponent.  There 
was  a  grassy  ledge  about  twenty  feet  above  the  river,  affording  a 
surface  not  more  than  ten  feet  wide  and  forty  feet  long,  the  lofty 
bluff  of  the  Palisades  rising  on  one  side.    Rocks  provided  an  almost 


248 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


natural  staircase  to  the  platform,  and  once  here  combat  ants  were 
perfectly  safe  against  interruption  or  detection.  The  advent  of  the 
West  Shore  Railroad  has  completely  removed  all  traces  of  the  his- 
toric spot,  and  could  not  even  spare  a  few  rude  memorials  of  the  event 
placed  there  by  the  St.  Andrew's  Society.  It  must  have  been  some- 
where near  where  the  railroad  tunnel  now  pierces  the  Palisades. 

The  details  of  the  fatal  meeting-  need  not  be  dwelt  on.  Hamilton 
had  no  intentions  whatever  of  tiring  on  Burr,  unless  indeed  a  second 
lire  had  been  necessary  and  had  unmistakably  exhibited  a  murderous 
purpose  on  the  part  of  his  antagonist,  when  self-defense  might  have 
demanded  it.  But  Hamilton  fell  at  the  first  tire.  Burr  had  diligent  I  \ 
occupied  the  interval  between  the  date  of  the  acceptance  of  the  chal- 
lenge and  the  duel  in  practicing  shooting  with  a  pistol  at  a  target  in 
the  Richmond  Hill  garden,  and  the  pistol  practice  had  not  been  in 
vain.  The  bullet  entered  Hamilton's  body  in  the  region  of  the  second 
and  third  false  ribs,  and  tore  through  sonic  of  the  most  vital  organs 
below  the  diaphragm.  A  hurried  departure  from  the  fatal  spot  fol- 
lowed, Burr's  party  leaving  first.  Let  us  follow  him  for  a  few  mo- 
ments and  then  dismiss  him  from  these  pages.  Arrived  once  more 
at  Richmond  Hill  perhaps  at  the  hour  of  seven  in  the  morning,  he 
quietly  settled  himself  in  his  library  to  write  to  his  daughter  Theo- 
dosia.  James  Barton  informs  tis  that  a  relative  from  Connecticut  ar- 
rived about,  the  same  hour  after  an  all-night  journey.  At  eighl 
o'clock  breakfast  was  served  to  the  two  gentlemen,  for  Burr  was  a 
w  idower,  and  a  little  later  t  he  cousin  walked  down  to  the  city.  It  was 
only  when  he  saw  the  commotion  ia  the  streets  that  he  learned  what 
had  taken  place.  The  day  after  Hamilton's  death  Burr  was  indicted 
for  murder  by  a  coroner's  jury,  and  had  to  flee  the  city  to  escape  ar- 
rest. He  went  to  Philadelphia,  and  thence  to  Washington,  and  in 
December  took  Ins  chair  as  President  of  the  Senate.  When  his  office 
expired  lie  could  not  return  to  New  York  and  face  t  he  obloquy  and  in- 
dignation directed  against  him  there.  Soon  he  launched  upon  the 
romantic  scheme  of  empire  in  the  Southwest,  for  which  he  underwent 
a  trial  for  high  treason.  But  there  was  not  enough  evidence  to  con- 
vict him.  Ruined  in  fortune  and  reputation,  he  spent  several  years 
in  Europe,  and  returned  alter  the  War  of  1812 to  New  York,  resuming 
the  practice  of  the  law.  Near  his  end  he  married  .Madame  Jumel,  who 
owned  the  .Morris  mansion  on  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-first  Street, 
now  called  after  her.  but  ere  his  death  he  was  divorced  from  her. 
At  last  came  the  end  of  his  strange  career,  on  September  14.  1836, 
amid  the  bitterness  of  disgrace,  ostracised  from  society,  with  but  a 
few  friends  to  adhere  to  him. 

Hamilton's  party,  tenderly  bearing  his  stricken  frame,  was  a  little 
longer  in  getting  off.  It  did  not  return  up  the  river,  but  pointed 
southward,  intending  perhaps  to  take  the  wounded  man  to  his  town 
house.   But  near  the  fool  of  the  present  .lane  or  Horatio  street  they 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


249 


passed  Mr.  William  Bayard's  country  seat  at  Greenwich,  and  the 
condition  of  the  patient  compelled  them  to  seek  shelter  for  him  there, 
which  was  eagerly  accorded.  Hither  to  his  deathbed  were  summoned 
Mrs.  Hamilton  and  the  numerous  and  youthful  children.  Everything 
was  done  to  save  the  precious  life,  some  French  warships  sending  sur- 
geons skilled  in  gunshot  wounds.  But  all  was  in  vain.  The  deadly 
purpose  had  guided  too  well  the  pistol's  aim.  All  that  day  and 
through  the  night  Hamilton  suffered  intensely.  Early  the  next  morn- 
ing the  pain  abated,  but  exhaustion,  the  forerunner  of  death,  set  in. 
Several  hours  were  thus  spent  in  comparative  comfort,  in  conversa- 
tion with  wife  and  children,  and  the  offices  of  religion.  At  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  of  July  12,  1804,  Hamilton  died.  There  was  an  out- 
burst of  genuine  and  spontaneous  grief  in  every  part  of  the  nation. 
Federalists  and  Republicans  sunk  their  political  differences  in  the 
deep-felt  sorrow  for  a  life  so  useful  and  powers  so  transcendent  sac- 
rificed so  ruthlessly.  Cincinnati  and  members  of  the  bar  wore  mourn- 
ing badges  for  several  weeks.  On  Saturday,  July  14,  funeral  services 
were  held  in  Trinity  Church,  and  Gouverneur  Morris  delivered  his 
famous  eulogy.  We  may  stand  to-day  before  the  simple  monument 
in  Trinity  churchyard,  on  the  side  of  Rector  Street,  and  read  the  brief 
but  expressive  phrases  rendering  a  true  account  of  this  remarkable 
life:  "  The  Patriot  of  Incorruptible  Integrity,  the  Soldier  of  Approved 
Valour,  the  Statesman  of  Consummate  Wisdom,  whose  Talents  and 
Virtues  shall  be  admired  by  grateful  Posterity,  long  after  this  marble 
has  mouldered  into  dust." 

Immediately  upon  the  evacuation  of  New  York  by  the  British  a 
change  of  Mayors  was  effected.  David  Matthews  was  fain  to  leave 
the  city,  his  record  making  such  a  step  quite  expedient  for  him.  In 
his  place  the  constituted  authorities  at  once  appointed  James  Duane, 
associated  with  Jay  and  other  eminent  patriots  in  the  service  of  his 
country.  Democracy  only  gradually  awakened  to  its  prerogatives, 
and  for  many  years  to  come,  whether  Radicals  or  Conservatives  were 
in  power,  a  great  number  of  offices  now  elective  remained  appointive, 
as  before.  To  meet  this  supposed  necessity  of  carrying  on  govern- 
ment, a  Council  of  Appointment  was  created  by  the  Constitution  of 
1777,  which  consisted  of  the  Governor  of  the  State  as  Chairman,  and 
four  Senators,  one  each  from  the  four  districts  of  the  State.  Richard 
Varick  was  appointed  Recorder,  and  Marinus  Willett,  Sheriff,  both  of 
them  having  served  in  the  field,  while  Duane,  much  like  Jay,  had  done 
his  work  mainly  in  Congress  and  in  civil  life.  His  town  house  was  in 
King  (Pine)  Street,  which  he  found  in  ruins;  at  Twentieth  Street,  be- 
tween Third  and  Fourth  Avenues,  he  had  a  farm  or  country  seat, 
through  which  ran  a  very  crooked  little  stream  called  Krommetje,  or 
Krom  Messie,  in  Dutch  signifying  little  crooked,  or  crooked  little 
knife:  and  from  this  was  derived  the  anglicized  term  "  Gramercy." 
the  name  still  borne  by  the  Park  in  that  neighborhood.   Duane  held 


250 


HISTORY  OF  THK  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


office  till  1788,  and  was  then  succeeded  by  Richard  Varick,  the  Re- 
corder. He  bad  done  good  service  in  the  war,  was  Arnold's  aide-de- 
camp  at  the  time  of  the  treason,  and  when  ;i  little  lit  of  temper  had 
caused  Hamilton's  removal  for  a  w  hile,  w  as  employed  as  secretary  by 
Washington,  lie  was  a  lawyer  by  profession,  and  held  office  till  L800. 
In  that  year  the  federalists  lost  control  of  affairs  in  the  Stale,  and 
Edward  Livingston  was  appointed  Mayor.  He  belonged  to  the  famous 
Colonial  family  which  had  taken  umbrage  at  Hamilton  and  cast  in 
their  influence  on  t  he  radical  side  of  politics.  He  left  t  he  city  in  1 803, 
settling  in  New  Orleans,  recently  acquired  with  the  Louisiana  pur- 
chase, and  later  became  Jackson's  Secretary  of  State.  And  now  there 
comes  forward  as  .Mayor  a  man  destined  to  play  an  important  part  for 
many  years  in  the  annals  of  the  nation,  the  state,  and  the  city.  De 
Witt  Clinton,  nephew  and  secretary  of  Governor  George  Clinton,  the 
son  of  ( ieneral  -lames  Clinton,  received  t  he  appoint  menl  in  1 803,  hold- 
ing it  for  three  years,  then  after  another  three  years  resuming  the 
office,  and  continuing  in  it  for  five  years,  or  quite  through  the  "  War 
of  1812."  In  1807  Marinas  Willett  was  made  .Mayor,  an  office  that 
was  fitly  his  by  hereditary  right,  a  pleasant  reminder  of  the  fact  that 
his  grandfather  several  times  removed,  Thomas  W  illett.  had  been  the 
first  to  receive  the  appointment  id'  Mayor  when  Nichols  made  an  end 
of  the  reign  of  the  Burgomasters  in  1665.  An  important  duty  fell  to 
the  lot  of  Mayor  Livingston,  the  Laying  of  the  cornerstone  of  a  new 
City  Hall,  on  September  20,  L803,  from  w  hich  arose  the  present  beau- 
tiful building  in  the  park.  This  Mayor  also  nearly  succumbed  to  #»ne 
of  the  pestilences  so  froqnent  in  the  city  on  account  of  its  imperfect 
sanitary  arrangements,  which  became  the  more  threatening  as  the 
population  increased.  In  1808  there  w  as  a  visitation  of  yellow  fever, 
from  which  Mayor  Livingston  himself  suffered,  bu1  fortunately  recov- 
ered. In  L798  a  more  serious  epidemic  had  ravaged  the  population, 
two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty  people  being  carried  off  be- 
tween .Inly  211  and  November  1.  Two  lighter  visits  of  this  terrible 
plague  had  occurred  in  17ul  and  17!>.~>.  The  plague  of  1798  swepl  over 
seventeen  cities  of  the  union.  Pigs  had  served  as  scavengers,  and 
slaves  too  had  been  utilized  as  instruments  for  cleansing  the  city,  and 
after  17!>r>  it  was  attempted  to  drain  off  obnoxious  fluids  by  means  of 
underground  wooden  pipes,  lint  it  w  as  yet  many  a  decade  before  san- 
itary conditions  were  adequate  to  preserve  the  city  from  these  fright- 
ful visitations.  The  whole  city  budget  in  1800,  covering  its  primitive 
police,  fire,  prison,  paving,  lighting,  and  other  expenses,  amounted 
to  only  one  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  In  1804  the  people 
were  allowed  to  vote  at  charter  (lections  by  ballot  instead  of  viva 
voce,  as  heretofore,  and  it  seemed  necessary  to  specify  that  a  person 
must  vote  only  in  the  ward  where  he  resided.  At  this  time  the  popu- 
lation of  over  sixty  thousand  was  divided  into  nine  wards.  The  streets 
were  slow  ly  creeping  up  Broadway  on  the  west  side,  and  the  Bowery 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


251 


on  the  east,  leaving  still  a  wide  gap  of  open  country  between.  Here 
lay  the  Collect  in  all  the  glory  of  its  glassy  surface,  suggesting  ship 
canals  to  some  people  and  an  ornate  park  to  others.  At  Washing- 
ton's inauguration  the  residence  of  the  people  had  not  much  gone  be- 
yond the  New  York  Hospital  at  Duane  Street  on  Broadway,  and  had 
about  reached  in  anything  like  thick  array  Grand  Sheet  on  the  east, 
Corlear's  Hook  being  still  a  tract  of  open  country.  A  decade  later 
and  we  find  some  blocks  pretty  well  covered  with  houses  as  far  as 
Laight  Street,  but  in  a  narrow  strip  close  to  the  river.  When  Mayor 
Willett  assumed  the  chair  in  1807  not  much  advance  had  been  made, 
but  Leonard  Street  from  Broadway  to  the  river  marked  the  outskirts 
of  population,  together  with  the  strip  of  blocks  aforesaid  extending 
beyond  Desbrosses;  and  Bullock  (Broome)  Street  formed  the  outer 
boundary  on  the  east  side.  In  1790  there  is  the  first  record  of  side- 
walks, for  only  a  little  distance  along  Broadway  at  City  Hall  Park. 
In  1793  the  number- 
ing of  the  houses  was 
regulated,  yet  the 
directory  of  1789  in- 
dicates numbers,  but 
in  a  very  haphazard 
manner.  No.  33 
Broadway  was  on  the 
corner  of  Cortlandt 
Street,  29  was  near 
Maiden  Lane,  02  on 
the  corner  of  Liberty, 
and  133,  Jay's  house, 
as  we  saw,  was  below 
Wall,  and  on  t  h  e 
"  even  "  side  of  the 
way.  When  the  patriots  first  retook  their  own  in  1783,  the  as- 
pects of  the  city  must  have  been  dreary  in  the  extreme,  with  a 
deplorable  "  Oanvastown "  and  blackened  ruins  right  in  its  cen- 
ter. But  these  evidences  of  indigence  and  calamity  gradually 
disappeared,  and  edifices  of  noble  appearance  came  to  adorn  the 
rejuvenated  capital.  Among  the  first  efforts  at  architectural  beauty 
and  grandeur,  after  the  Federal  Hall,  must  be  reckoned  the  Gov- 
ernment House,  intended  first  for  the  official  residence  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  In  1790  the  ramparts  of  the 
fort  and  all  its  buildings  were  cleared  away,  and  upon  this  advan- 
tageously located  space  was  reared  an  imposing  structure,  with  pil- 
lared and  pedimented  front  porch  facing  the  Bowling  Green,  and  mak- 
ing a  fine  close  for  the  vista  from  Broadway.  But  the  Federal  govern- 
ment fled  from  the  city  before  it  was  completed.  Then  Jay  occupied  it 
as  Governor,  but  the  State  government  also  took  wings.  The  Govern- 
ment House  then  was  utilized  as  a  Custom  House  until  1815,  when 


THE  GOVERNMENT  HOUSE, 


252 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


building  and  lots  were  sold  by  a  thrifty  Chamberlain  at  a  profit  of 
|60,000  over  the  original  cost,  and  six  handsome  brick  residences  rose 
upon  the  block.  Strangely  enough  there  has  been  some  talk  recently 
of  again  putting  up  a  Custom  House  upon  the  spot.  Looking  over  a 
list  of  houses  and  lots  valued  at  over  $10,000  in  1799,  we  find  that  the 
Tontine  House,  in  Wall  Street,  was  the  dearest  in  the  city,  being  put 
;ii  S.S5.000.  The  csiatc  of  1  M\  \'ai!  Zand!.  <>n  Water  Street,  was  put  at 
825,0(10.  Daniel  Dunbar,  on  Front  Street,  owned  a  house  worth  823.- 
500.  The  Franklin  House  was  valued  at  812.000.  aud  the  other  Wash- 
ington residence,  the  Macomb  houses  (double),  were  worth  825,000. 
It  is  a  pity  that  a  tire  in  1804,  carrying  away  over  forty  houses,  de- 
stroyed the  Tontine  Coffee  House,  as  seen  above  the  most  costly  build- 
ing in  town,  and  also  rich  in  historic  association. 

In  addition  to  such  familiar  names  as  the  Fly  Market  (at  front 
Street  and  Maiden  Lane),  Oswego  Market,  foot  of  Liberty  Street 
(first  called  Oswego  Street,  west  of  Broadway),  and  others,  wo  now 
come  upon  the  Spring  Street  Market,  and  the  one  in  Grand  Street, 
still  in  existence,  which  were  established  in  1807.  Manufactures 
sprang  into  life  all  over  the  State,  and  our  city  led  in  this  Industry. 
Iron  was  worked  from  the  ore.  Woolen,  linen,  cotton,  and  silk  cloth 
were  woven:  leather,  glass,  paper,  clocks,  hats,  copper,  brass,  and  tin 
utensils  invited  capital  and  largely  repaid  investment,  while  labor  was 
busy  and  well  rewarded,  and  prosperity  made  all  classes  contented. 
The  Chamber  of  Commerce,  although  not  interrupted  in  its  life  and 
usefulness  during  the  enemy's  occupancy  of  the  city,  look  on  new- 
vigor  and  reorganized  under  a  charter  from  the  State  in  17S4.  The 
first  President  under  the  new  regime  was  John  Alsop;  the  first  Vice- 
President,  our  truculent  Liberty  Boy,  Isaac  Sears,  alias  "  King 
Sears."  The  first  bank  was  established  in  1784 — the  Bank  of  New- 
York.  Its  quarters  were  at  first  in  the  Walton  house  on  Pearl  Street. 
In  1787  it  moved  to  No.  11  Hanover  Square,  and  in  1797  took  up  its 
location  at  the  corner  of  Wall  and  William  streets,  where  it  may  still 
be  found  to-day.  General  McDougall,  the  John  Wilkes  of  an  earlier 
day,  was  its  first  President;  in  1789  Mr.  Isaac  Koosevelt  held  the  posi- 
i  ion.  It  remained  the  only  bank  in  the  city  until  1799,  when  t  he  Man- 
hattan Company,  now  at  42  Wall  Street,  asked  for  a  charter,  by  the 
advice  of  Purr,  to  supply  water  to  the  city  and  do  "  other  business." 
The  "  other  business  "  was  banking,  and  was  the  main  object  of  the 
charter,  which  the  Federalist  majority  in  the  legislature  would  not 
have  granted  to  a  Republican  corporation.  The  water-works  were 
set  up  on  Chambers  Street,  near  Centre,  and  included  the  old  smelt- 
ing furnace  on  Keade  Street.  Just  before  the  close  of  the  century  the 
Marine  Insurance  Company  and  the  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company 
were  organized,  and  in  1801  these  were  followed  by  the  Washington 
Fire  Insurance  Company.  These  institutions  were  already  beginning 
to  give  its  character  to  Wall  Street,  destined  to  become  ///'  "Street " 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


253 


in  the  financial  world.  Colonel  Lamb  was  appointed  Collector  of  the 
Port  in  1784,  and  his  house  on  Wall,  near  William,  became  at  the 
same  time  the  Custom  House.  He  was  noted  for  his  opposition  to  t  he 
Constitution,  the  hot  blood  of  the  Liberty  Boy  days  still  keeping  him 
;i  radical  Democrat,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  Federal  celebration 
his  house  came  near  being  looted  by  a  mob.  The  Postoffice,  opened 
three  days  after  the  evacuation,  was  at  William  Bedlow's  house.  38 
Smith  (William)  Street.  In  1789  it  was  at  8  Wall  Street,  and  again 
later  a  successor  took  it  to  62  Broadway,  at  the  corner  of  <  'row  n  i  Lib- 
erty) Street,  which  drew  an  expression  of  indignation  from  sundry 
merchants  for  being  so  far  out  of  the  way.  The  amount  of  business 
done  in  the  city  in  those  early  days  may  be  indicated  by  a  few  figures: 
The  exports  from  New  York  in  the  year  1791  amounted  to  $2,505,465. 
On  October  1,  1799,  the  exports  of  the  United  States  reached  the  fig- 
ure of  178,665,522;  of  these  Pennsyl- 
vania furnished  $12,431,967  worth; 
Maryland,  $16,299,609;  but  the  highest 
amount  was  credited  to  New  York, 
and  was  $18,719,527.  In  1791  New- 
York  City  ranked  fourth  in  the  matter 
of  tonnage;  on  December  31,  1799,  our 
city  stood  first  of  all  the  great  com- 
mercial centers  of  the  Union,  with  a 
tonnage  of  106,! ~>:>7.  while  Philadelphia 
came  next  witli  81,486.  In  the  year 
1786  the  first  city  directory  was  pub- 
lished, a  tiny  volume  one  can  stow 
away  in  a  side  pocket.  The  next  was 
issued  in  1789,  not  much  larger;  and 
as  we  come  to  those  of  1798, 1799, 1800, 
1806,  and  1807,  the  size  readies  a  small  duodecimo, 
contains  900  names. 

In  the  course  of  our  narrative  of  stirring  political  events  or  great 
historical  occasions  we  have  had  occasion  to  mention  more  than  one 
of  the  prominent  taverns  or  hotels.  Of  the  ordinary  taprooms  there 
were  many,  three  hundred  and  thirty  licenses  having  been  issued  in 
L789  alone.  It  is  noted  as  an  important  fact  in  some  published  remi- 
niscences that  the  old  City  Hotel  (Cape's  Tavern.  Province  Arms,  etc.), 
on  the  site  of  the  Boreel  Building,  the  former  James  De  Lancey  resi- 
dence, was  the  first  building  in  the  city  (or  country)  to  have  a  slate 
roof  put  up,  in  1794.  In  1807  the  Federalist  headquarters  were  at  Me- 
chanics' Hall,  corner  of  Broadwray  and  Robinson  Street  (Park  Place); 
the  Democrats  had  theirs  at  Martling's  Hotel,  which  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  American  Tract  Society  Building,  150  Nassau  Street,  corner 
Printing  House  Square,  or  Spruce  Street.  In  1811  these  were  trans- 
ferred to  Tammany  Hall,  on  the  site  of  the  New  York  Sun  office. 


SOCIETY   LIBRARY  IN  1795. 


The  one  of  1786 


254 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


There  were  famous  pleasure  resorts  out  iu  the  near  country.  The 
Belvidere,  perhaps  rather  a  private  clubhouse,  stood  about  on  the 
corner  of  Montgomery  and  Cherry  streets.  The  piazza  and  garden 
sloping  down  to  the  river,  afforded  a  hue  view  of  Brooklyn's  wooded 
heights,  and  across  Governor's  Island  over  the  Bay.  Its  ballroom 
Avas  forty-five  feet  long,  twenty-four  w  ide,  and  seventeen  high.  Prom 
Chatham  Square  a  racecourse  was  laid  out  northerly  along  the  Bow- 
ery road,  and  about  a  mile  or  more  further  out  were  the  delectable 
Vauxhall  Gardens,  kept  by  the  Frenchman  Delacroix.  Twenty-five 
cents  a  piece  for  four  persons,  or  one  dollar  if  you  were  alone,  would 
procure  a  carriage  ride  from  the  stand  at  St.  Paul's  to  the  gardens. 
They  were  on  the  site  of  the  present  Astor  Library,  but  extended  from 
Fourth  Avenue  quite  to  Broadway.  John  Jacob  Astor  bought  the 
property  in  1803  for  $45,000,  and  leased  it  to  Delacroix,  who  was  still 
there  in  1808. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century  there  were  seven  newspapers  pub- 
lished in  the  city.  In  1789  there  were  five:  the  New  York  Packet  was 
published  at  5  Water  Street  by  Samuel  Loudon,  and  came  out  three 
times  a  week,  on  Tuesday,  Thursday,  and  Saturday;  the  subscription 
price  was  10  shillings  per  year.  The  New  York  Journal  was  now  pub- 
lished by  Thomas  (ireenleaf.  at  >"o.  2.1  Water  Street ;  its  price,  t  wo  dol- 
lars a  year  (or  10  shillings),  and  was  issued  only  on  Thursday  of  each 
week.  The  name  of  the  Daili/  Advertiser  indicates  a  step  in  advance 
iu  newspaper  enterprise.  It  cost  six  dollars  per  annum,  and  was  pub- 
lished by  Francis  Childs  at  L90  Water  Street,  corner  of  King  (Pine). 
There  was  also  a  Daily  Gazette,  published  at  41  Hanover  Square  by 
the  McLean  Brothers,  and  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  issued  twice 
a  week,  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  from  John  Fenno's  printing 
•  •nice  at  9  Maiden  Lane,  its  price  being  three  dollars  per  year.  To 
these  were  added  later  the  Evening  Post  (1801).  and  Commercial  LcJ- 
vertiser  ( 1 707).  The  former  name  had  made  its  appearance  in  1740. 
but  as  a  daily  it  came  forth  for  the  tirst  time  on  November  16,  L801. 
In  1788  Noah  Webster,  with  strong  Federalist  proclivities,  began  to 
publish  the  American  Magazine,  but  it  did  not  survive  for  many 
months,  (ireenleaf  had  issued  the  Patriotic  Register  before  his  other 
paper,  but  some  sarcastic  remarks  about  the  Federal  Constitution 
broughl  the  mob  to  his  door  on  the  eventful  duly  2&,  1788.  who 
smashed  his  plant,  and  he  gave  up  its  publication.  The  Price  Current 
was  a  strictly  mercantile  paper.  One  famous  duel  at  least  grew  out 
of  the  personalities  too  freely  indulged  in  in  those  days.  Brockholsl 
Livingston,  afterward  so  honorably  active  in  founding  the  public 
school  system,  had.  in  a  newspaper  article,  mercilessly  ridiculed  the 
organizers  of  a  Federalist  meeting.  A  Mr.  Jones,  one  of  their  mem- 
bers, discovering  the  identity  of  the  writer,  gave  this  scion  of  the 
Colonial  aristocracy,  who  now  posed  with  all  his  family  as  tierce  Dem- 
ocrats, a  sound  drubbing  with  a  cane.     A  duel  was  the  result  and 

Jones  fell  its  vi<-i im. 


» 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


255 


Some  account  has  already  been  given  of  the  effect  of  the  location 
of  the  seat  of  government  at  New  York  upon  the  social  life  of  the  city. 
The  advent  of  independence  made  visible  a  marked  change  every- 
where in  the  feelings  of  the  humbler  classes.  Clergymen  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, writing  to  Europe,  complained  of  the  pride  of  the  common  peo- 
ple. One  could  no  longer  tell  from  the  dress  of  trades-people  and 
mechanics  and  their  families,  that  they  belonged  to  these  humble 
f  allings.  Their  hats  and  coats  and  gowns  were  as  good  as  anybody 
else's,  and  in  the  very  expression  of  countenance  they  looked  the 
sovereigns  they  had  become.  Anyone  who  has  traveled  in  Europe 
and  noted  the  countenances  as  well  as  attire  of  the  laboring  classes, 
and  then  observes  those  of  our  country  on  his  return,  will  still  see 
something  of  that  difference  that  came  over  the  spirit  of  our  people 
after  1783  and  1789,  and  will  glory  in  the  fact  rather  than  deplore  it 
with  the  scandalized  theologians  of  that  earlier  day.  Lafayette  ex- 
claimed on  his  visit  in  1784:  "lint  where  are  the  people?" — there  being 
no  leather  aprons,  nor  caps,  nor  any  of  the  insignia  of  dependence. 
The  people  were  all  free  and  equal  before  the  law,  and  also  in  their 
manner  of  dress.  Emigration  also  now  came  in  to  modify  the  char- 
acter or  complexion  of  the  older  population.  Without  any  facts  or 
figures  to  show  just  what  that  amounted  to  in  the  early  years  of  the 
republic,  still  it  must  have  been  of  considerable  extent,  since  in  1794 
we  read  of  the  formation  of  a  society  for  the  purpose  of  "  affording 
information  and  assistance  to  persons  emigrating  from  foreign  coun- 
tries." The  peace  w  as  not  yet  a  year  old,  nor  New  York  more  than  a 
few  months  in  the  possession  of  its  own  people,  when  in  1781  came  to 
her  from  his  native  village  of  Waldorf  in  Germany  one  who  was  to 
become  its  wealthiest  citizen  and  greatest  real  estate  owner.  This 
was  John  Jacob  Astor,  who  set  up  a  little  store  at  81  Queen  (Pearl) 
Street,  near  the  Quaker  meeting-house,  about  midway  betwreen 
Cherry  and  Monroe,  where  he  bought  skins  or  furs  and  sold  pianos 
on  commission  for  his  brother  in  London.  We  have  seen  that  he 
bought  the  Vauxhall  Gardens  property  in  L803.  After  1801  he 
bought  the  Richmond  Hill  estate  for  $25,000,  which  sum,  however, 
did  not  begin  to  satisfy  Burr's  creditors.  In  1794  another  interest- 
ing emigrant  came  to  the  city,  who  became  a  man  of  mark  in  busi- 
ness and  literary  lines.  This  was  Grant  Thorburn,  the  seedsman. 
He  was  a  nailmaker  by  trade,  but  found  his  trade  gone  by  reason  of 
the  recent  introduction  of  nail-making  machinery.  He  made  the  nails 
for  the  slate  roof  on  the  City  Hotel;  but  after  that,  having  no  job  and 
yet  having  married  a  wife — towering  far  above  his  altitude  of  only 
four  feet,  so  that,  as  he  duly  records  in  his  Keminiseences,  he  had  to 
get  up  on  a  bench  to  kiss  her — he  set  up  a  grocery  store.  That,  too, 
proved  a  poor  investment.  But  one  day  he  bought  a  geranium  at  the 
FlyMarket,  and  put  it  on  his  shelves  in  the  window.  A  passer-by 
admired  the  flower,  and  gladly  purchased  it  at  the  price  the  proprie- 


25(5 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tor  mentioned,  which  netted  him  a  profit  of  twenty-five  cents.  He 
bought  some  more  plants,  and  sold  these  at  a  profit  also;  next  some 
people  from  the  country  who  could  not  conveniently  carry  potted 
plants  home  with  them,  asked  for  seed.  And  in  this  humble  way  was 
started  one  of  the  greatest  seed  businesses  in  the  country.  The  little 
shop  was  in  ( frown  (Liberty)  Street  near  the  spot  where  the  first  Quaker 
meeting-house  was  erected.  It  is  interesting  to  read  how  young  Thor- 
bnrn.  himself  a  humble  mechanic,  regarded  the  outbreak  of  fury 
againsl  Jay  for  perfecting  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  Great  Britain. 
He  had  climbed  into  a  i  ree  near  the  corner  of  Wall  and  Broad  Streets, 
the  indignation  meeting  having  been  called  in  front  of  Federal  Hall, 
and  he  saw  all  the  proceedings,  including  the  stoning  of  Hamilton. 
•'About  this  time,"  he  wrote  fifty  years  later.  "John  Jay  arrived 
from  London  with  the  famous  British  treaty.  General  Washington, 
General  Hamilton,  and  1  he  majority  of  t  he  men  who  had  just  hung  up 
their  swords,  and  wiped  the  dirt  and  sweat  from  their  brows  after 
achieving  their  country's  independence,  thought  the  treaty  highly 
advantageous  to  their  country;  but  the  clammen,  hodmen,  dustmen, 
and  cart  men  thought  otherwise."  Thorbnrn  was  the  "  Laurie  Todd  " 
of  John  (ialt's  novel,  and  sometimes  w  rote  under  that  pseudonym. 

During  this  period  the  Society  Library  advanced  far  enough  to  be 
enabled  to  put  up  a  goodly  building  at  the  corner  of  Nassau  and 
Cedar  Streets,  opposite  the  Middle  Dutch  Church.  This  was  in  17'.)."). 
And  in  this  connection  it  is  not  amiss  to  remember  that  the  first 
American  novel  was  written  by  a  New  York  citizen.  In  L796  Charles 
Brockden  Brown  had  come  from  Philadelphia  to  reside  here;  he  mar- 
ried a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Linn,  one  of  the  Collegiate 
Reformed  Pastors,  living  on  Murray  Street;  and  in  1798  he  published 
"  Wieland,  or  the  Transformation."  In  1804  the  New  fork  Histori- 
cal Society  was  organized  in  the  picture  room  of  the  old  City  Hall, 
with  Mayor  DeWitf  Clinton  as  first  President.  Other  literary  and 
benevolent  associations  sprang  up.  among  them  the  Tontine,  a  sort 
of  early  building  and  loan,  and  life  insurance  company  combined; 
the  Humane  Society,  for  the  relief  of  distressed  debtors;  the  Manu- 
mission Society,  mainly  composed  of  Quakers,  for  aiding  and  edu- 
cating slaves;  the  Sailor's  Snug  Harbor,  founded  by  Captain  Thomas 
Randall,  who  guided  Washington's  barge  in  L789.  In  the  year  of  the 
inauguration  Tammany  Society  was  organized,  somewhat  as  a  demo- 
cratic protest  against  the  aristocratic  tendencies  of  the  Cincinnati. 
John  Pintard,  prominent  in  business  circles,  and  later  a  charter  mem- 
ber of  the  Historical  Society,  was  its  hrst  Chief  or  Sagamore.  Its 
meetings  were  held  in  Praunce's  Tavern  in  its  earliest  days.  The  so- 
ciety signalized  itself  by  celebrating  the  third  centenary  of  the  dis- 
covery of  America  on  October  12.  1  7i>2.  An  "elegant  oration  "  was 
delivered,  a  banquet  served  in  the  evening  at  which  fourteen  toasts 
were  given,  beginning  with  Columbus  and  ending  with  Washington, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK.  257 


HAMILTON-BURR  DUELING  GROUND. 
THE  MONUMENTS  AND  VIEW  OF  CITY  IN  DISTANCE. 


while  allegorical  representations  entertained  the  guests  after  the 
good  cheer  had  been  disposed  of.  They  were  in  high  feather  in  1790 
when  the  half  breed  McGillivray  and  twenty -eight  representative  war- 
riors of  the  Creek  nation  came  from  Georgia  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with 
the  United  States  at  New  York  by  Washington's  special  request.  The 
Tammanyites  arrayed  themselves  in  Indian  costume  and  did  the  hon- 
ors of  the  occasion.  But  the  real  Indians  did  not  quite  know  what  to 
make  of  these  extemporized  specimens,  and.  lacking  the  sense  of  hu- 
mor, came  very  near  being  insulted,  thinking  the  intention  was  to  ridi- 
cule them. 

A  curious  instance  of  the  primitive  manners  of  a  great  portion  of 


258 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  inhabitants  of  the  capital — proving  how  provincial  it  still  was 
after  all — is  afforded  by  the  "  Doctors'  Riot  "  so  called,  ft  was  not  a 
riot  of  doctors  but  against  them.  The  New  York  Hospital  on  Duane 
Street  and  Broadway  had  been  fully  completed  after  the  war.  and  de- 
voted to  its  commendable  purposes.  In  connection  with  it  a  medical 
school  on  a  small  scale  was  initiated,  and  it  was  rumored  that  bodies 
were  occasionally  abstracted  from  the  Potter's  field  for  dissecting 
] imposes.  This  and  the  fact  of  the  dissection  itself,  horrified  the 
masses  very  much,  and  the  circumstances  were  greatly  exaggerated. 
On  Sunday,  April  13,  1788,  a  mischievous  boy  climbed  a  ladder  left 
standing  by  some  mechanics  who  had  been  engaged  to  make  repairs 
on  the  building.  He  looked  down  into  one  of  the  rooms,  when  a  medi- 
cal student  flourished  a  dead  person's  arm  in  his  face  to  frighten  him. 
He  had  recently  lost  his  mother,  and  the  report  soon  spread  among 
the  class  to  which  he  belonged  that  it  was  his  mother's  body  which 
the  students  were  cutting  up.  This  report  acted  like  fire  upon  pow- 
der. A  mob  soon  gathered  and  rushed  to  the  hospital  in  search  of  the 
obnoxious  students  and  doctors.  Several  citizens,  John  Jay  among 
them,  sought  to  appease  the  raging  populace  and  bring  them  to  rea- 
son. Jay  and  the  others  found  the  task  impossible,  and  retired  from 
the  attempt  with  injuries  to  their  own  persons.  It  was  some  days 
before  the  militia  and  the  wiser  citizens,  organized  for  defense, 
succeeded  in  restoring  the  city  to  peace  and  good  order.  The  doctors 
meanwhile  had  barely  escaped  with  their  lives,  and  a  Dr.  Cochrane's 
house  was  gutted.  Other  prominenl  citizens  fared  as  badly  as  Jay. 
Mayor  Duane  and  Governor  Clinton  had  as  little  power  over  the  mul- 
titude as  the  ever  persuasive  Hamilton.  The  good  Baron  Steuben, 
now  a  resident  of  the  city,  obtained  a  broken  head  or  skin  in  the  af- 
fray. The  soldiers  were  forced  to  fire  into  the  mob.  killing  five  and 
wounding  eight. 


CHAPTER  X. 

INVENTION  AND  ENTERPRISE. 

t 

T  is  a  common  platitude  that  great  events  east  their  shadows 
before  them.  In  1797  the  historic  but  now  vanished  Col- 
lect Pond,  exposing  its  limpid  surface  to  the  sky  where 
the  Tombs  has  frowned  for  so  many  years,  bore  upon 
its  waters  a  frail  boat  with  a  curious  piece  of  mechanism  in  it,  moved 
by  the  then  recently  applied  power  of  steam.  John  Fitch,  of  Phila- 
delphia, was  its  inventor  and  constructor,  who  ten  years  before  had 
shown  his  steamboat  to  astonished  spectators  upon  the  Delaware. 
Fitch  had  with  him  in  his  boat  on  the 
Collect  Chancellor  Livingston  and  John 
Stevens  of  Hoboken.  Nor  was  this  ex- 
periment or  construction  the  only  one 
that  preceded  the  final  triumph  of 
steam  navigation.  Fulton's  glory  con- 
sists in  having  made  practicable  and 
serviceable  what  had  been  merely  ex- 
perimental before,  rather  than  in  the 
absolute  originality  of  his  idea.  Toy- 
boats  and  clumsy  mechanisms  had  been 
made  to  "  go  ";  but  there  was  no  real 
business  of  navigation  about  it  all  until 
he  had  perfected  his  design. 

Chancellor  Livingston  was  evidently 
impressed  with  his  trips  around  the 
Collect  in  Mr.  Fitch's  queer  boat.  The 
next  year,  1798,  he  went  before  the 
State  Legislature,  then  sitting  for  the  first  time  in  Albany, 
through  the  intervention  of  his  friend  the  eminent  scientist,  Dr. 
Samuel  L.  Mitchell.  He  represented  to  the  Legislature  that  he 
wras  in  possession  of  a  plan  for  applying  the  steam  engine  in  such 
a  way  as  to  propel  a  boat  ;  but  that  he  hesitated  to  carry  the  plan  into 
effect  because  the  experiment  was  expensive,  and  he  wished  to  be  as- 
sured of  deriving  the  exclusive  advantages  from  its  operation  should 
it  be  successful.  The  bill  was  met  by  a  storm  of  laughter  and  ridi- 
cule, but  Dr.  Mitchell  persisted  in  presenting  and  pushing  it  against 
all  the  witticisms  of  the  wags,  until  in  a  burst  of  good  nature. 


260 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


caused  no  doubt  by  its  own  merriment,  the  Legislature  passed 
the  act  in  March.  1T!)S.  endowing  Judge  Livingston  "  with  the  exclu- 
sive right  and  privilege  of  navigating  all  kinds  of  boats  which  might 
be  propelled  by  the  force  of  fire  or  steam,  on  all  the  waters  within  the 
territory  or  jurisdiction  of  the  State  of  New  York,  for  a  term  of 
twenty  years  from  the  passing  of  the  act — upon  condition  that  he 
should  within  a  twelvemonth  build  such  a  boat,  the  mean  of  whose 
progress  should  not  be  less  than  four  miles  an  hour."  Twenty  years 
would  carry  us  to  ISIS;  and  it  is  also  well  to  remember  the  condition 
as  to  speed — four  miles  per  hour. 

The  Chancellor  did  not  materialize  this  project.  What  he  did  pro- 
duce failed  to  attain  the  required  speed.  But  all  things  come  to  him 
who  waits, — or  can  wait  (pent  attendre).  A  few  years  later  and  Liv- 
ingston was  in  France,  the  accredited  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of 
t  he  United  States.  Here  he  became  acquainted  with  Robert  Fulton, 
who  had  gone  over  to  Europe  to  study  art,  but  whose  head  was  full 
of  schemes  for  building  steamboats.  He  had  interested  Joel  Barlow, 
a  man  of  means,  who  perpetrated  the  extreme  of  the  foolish  in  at- 
tempting an  epic  poem  called  the  "  Columbiad,"  and  touched  the 
extreme  of  the  wise  in  fostering  the  plans  of  Fulton.  Fulton  had 
come  to  him  in  1797,  was  made  an  inmate  of  his  house  in  Paris,  and  by 
Barlow's  aid  had  constructed  a  model  steamboat  and  exhibited  it  on 
the  Seine.  Livingston  and  Fulton  were  two  men  well  met  on  such  a 
subject.  The  Chancellor,  with  his  experience,  saw  at  once  that  there 
was  more  in  Fulton's  idea  or  model  than  in  Fitch's  or  his  own.  They 
agreed  to  enter  into  partnership,  Barlow  guaranteeing  Fulton's  share 
of  the  finances.  An  engine  wras  ordered  in  England,  and  Fulton  went 
to  New  York  in  180(5  to  build  the  boat  to  contain  it.  Livingston  could 
not  stay  in  France  with  this  scheme  under  way  and  resigned  his  dip- 
lomatic position  in  order  to  prepare  for  more  lasting  honors  at  home. 
He  had  been  on  the  Committee  to  draft  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence; he  had  administered  the  oath  to  Washington;  what  he  was  to 
accomplish  now  has  placed  his  name  upon  a  far  higher  pinnacle  of 
fame. 

At  the  Brown  Brothers'  shipyard  on  the  East  River,  at  the  fool  of 
Houston  Street,  the  mysterious  craft  that  was  ambitious  to  plow 
the  waters  without  the  aid  of  sails,  and  was  the  first  to  do  so,  was  con- 
structed. It  was  no  small  vessel  for  those  days,  and  for  river  naviga- 
tion: its  length  was  130  feet,  its  beam  18  feet,  and  its  depth  7  feet;  its 
burden  one  hundred  and  sixty  tons.  A  deckhouse  pierced  by  win- 
dows and  fitted  up  inside  with  twelve  berths,  reached  within  a  short 
distance  of  both  bow  and  stern,  leaving  a  space  open  to  the  sky  at 
either  end.  There  were  two  masts  that  could  be  fitted  with  sails, 
and  were  rigged  for  the  purpose.  There  was  as  yet  nothing  startling 
about  these  details.  But  now  strange  things  began  to  happen.  Ma- 
chinery was  put  up  piece  by  piece  within  the  boat,  just  like  that  used 


262 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


at  the  Manhattan  Water-works,  or  like  what  might  be  seen  in  saw- 
mills. A  great  iron  pipe  rose  from  the  center,  almost  as  high  as  the 
masts;  and,  last  of  all, great  wheels  were  hung  on  either  side  like  those 
moved  by  mill-races.  Then,  in  the  newspapers  of  Friday  morning, 
August  4,  1807,  appeared  an  advertisement  which  capped  the  climax 
of  people's  astonishment.  This  strange  craft,  christened  the  Cler- 
mont, after  Livingston's  country-seat  on  the  Hudson,  was  announced 
to  sail  from  the  foot  of  Cortlandt  Street  at  <i.:il>  o'clock  on  .Monday 
morning,  August  7,  and  would  take  passengers  to  Albany  at  seven 
dollars  a  piece.  One  or  two  trial  trips  around  the  island  to  Jersey 
City  and  back  had  been  made,  so  that  Fulton  and  his  partners  were 
perfectly  sure  of  their  strange  craft.  By  Monday  morning  all  the 
twelve  berths  had  been  taken,  and  ten  thousand  people  were  lining 
the  shore  in  the  vicinity  of  the  starting  point  to  see  the  novel  depart- 
ure. When  the  signal  to  move  was  given  the  Clermont  started  with- 
out a  hitch,  and  was  soon  in  mid-stream,  her  open  paddle-wheels  dash- 
ing the  water  on  either  side  of  her,  and  propelling  the  boat  at  a  goodly 
pace  toward  the  north.  Then  there  was  a  burst  of  applause  to  make 
up  for  all  the  previous  ridicule  and  incredulity. 

But  what  was  the  amazement  of  the  citizens  w  hen  the  Clermont 
was  seen  coining  back  again  about  four  in  the  afternoon  on  Friday. 
Had  she  really  been  as  far  as  Albany?  Fulton  soon  settled  that 
question  by  making  an  official  aud  sworn  statement,  published  in  the 
newspapers,  that  he  had  reached  Clermont,  Livingston  scat,  in  exactly 
twenty-four  hours,  had  rested  there  over  night,  and  gone  to  Albany 
in  eight  hours  on  Wednesday;  starting  thence  on  Thursday  at  a.m.. 
and  stopping  only  one  hour  at  Clermont,  he  had  accomplished  t  he  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  just  thirty  hours  coining  down.  Thus  the 
average  speed  attained  was  five  miles  per  hour,  or  one  mile  more  than 
was  required  by  the  act  of  the  Legislature.  By  this  time  Livingston 
had  secured  a  renewal  of  that  act,  although  the  partners  were  still 
within  the  term  of  the  twenty  years.  But  apart  from  these  calcula- 
tions, the  people  were  astounded  at  the  speed  of  the  journey  to  Albany. 
Under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  a  packet  would  achieve  the 
trip  thither  in  four  days,  so  that  it  would  take  from  Monday  to  Friday 
barely  to  get  there.  And  here  was  this  wonderful  craft  back  again 
in  that  very  time.  We  cannot  begin  to  realize  what  this  earliest  in- 
stance of  the  annihilation  of  time  and  distance  meant  to  the  genera- 
tions that  lived  upon  this  earth  in  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  It  seemed  nothing  short  of  a  miracle.  Within  four  years 
the  Clermont  was  improved  and  enlarged,  and  its  name  changed  to 
North  Biver.  and  the  partners  added  two  other  boats,  the  Car  of  Nep- 
tune and  the  Paragon,  to  their  line.  They  were  much  troubled  by 
rival  companies  and  their  boats,  and  their  profits  were  much  reduced 
by  lawsuits;  but  nevertheless  steam  navigation  was  an  established 
fact,  and  the  glorious  Hudson  the  first  river  in  the  world  to  be  regu- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


263 


larly  traveled  by  these  marvels  of  advancement  in  the  method  of 
transportation. 

Of  particular  interest  to  our  city  was  the  fact  that  steam  naviga- 
tion could  so  effectively  solve  the  problem  of  bridging  the  broad  rivers 
that  separated  her  from  the  neighboring  shores.  Yet  it  was  some 
years  before  steam  ferry-boats  were  put  into  operation.  In  1810  sail- 
and  row-boats  still  conveyed  passengers  from  the  foot  of  Fulton 
Street  to  Long  Island.  In  1812  a  ferry-boat  made  up  of  two  keels  ten 
feet  apart  and  joined  together  like  a  catamaran,  with  wheels  moved 
by  steam  placed  in  center,  ran  every  half  hour  in  daylight  from 
Paulus  Hook  to  Cortlandt  Street.  There  were  floating  bridges  at 
either  landing,  and  the  trip  consumed  from  fifteen  minutes  to  one 
hour,  according  to  the  winds  and  tides.  As  late  as  1811  similar 
boats,  but  with  the  wheels  moved  by  literal,  live  horse  power,  ran 
between  New  York  and  Long  Island.  Eight  horses  were  made  to 
walk  a  sort  of  horizontal  treadmill,  and  carried  the  people  across  in 
from  twelve  to  twenty  min- 
utes. It  was  but  a  step  from 
this  contrivance  to  horse 
power  as  applied  by  steam, 
and  in  May,  1814,  the  Nassau, 
tlx1  first  steam  ferry-boat, 
was  put  on  the  Fulton  Ferry. 
The  floating  bridges,  regu- 
lated by  weights  and  pulleys 
and  the  tide,  were  Fulton's 
invention;  the  yielding  row 
of  piles,  to  receive  the  impact 
of  the  boat  and  guide  it  safely 
and  gently  to  the  landing, 
was  the  invention  of  John  Stevens.  The  latter  has  the  credit  of 
having  perfected  a  steamboat  a  little  later  than  Fulton,  which 
he  sent  around  by  sea  to  Philadelphia,  as  the  monopoly  excluded 
him  from  New  York  waters.  He,  too,  has  the  honor  of  having 
first  suggested  or  used  the  screw  propeller,  which  was  not 
thought  worth  attention  until  1836,  when  John  Ericson  revived 
the  idea,  leading  to  that  perfection  of  ocean-navigation  by  steam 
which  has  since  been  attained.  Among  the  men  brought  for- 
ward by  this  new  era  of  navigation  was  Cornelius  Yanderbilt. 
Before  the  war  of  1812  he  ran  a  sail  ferry-boat  between  Staten 
Island  and  New  York.  Saving  his  money,  he  was  able  to  in- 
vest in  steamboats,  soon  owned  one,  running  her  as  its  captain,  and 
ere  long  had  a  line  plying  regularly  between  New  York  and  New 
Brunswick,  having  in  partnership  with  him  his  brother-in-law,  James 
van  Pelt.  This  steamboat  journey  materially  shortened  and  facili- 
tated intercourse  with  Philadelphia,  and  hence  it  proved  a  very  profit- 
able enterprise. 


W  ASHINGTON  HALL, 


264 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


In  the  same  year  of  Fulton's  triumph  there  were  already  the  pre- 
monitions of  the  "  Avar  of  L812,"  sometimes  called  the  second  war  for 
independence.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  now  Emperor  of  the  French, 
and  master  of  nearly  the  whole  continent  of  Europe.  England,  in 
her  insulated  position  and  with  her  unparalleled  navy,  was  the  only 
power  that  could  bid  him  defiance.  To  cripple  her  commerce  Napo- 
leon issued  his  "  Berlin  Decrees,"  to  which  England  replied  w  ith  her 
"  Orders  in  Council  ";  and  between  them  American  ships  became  the 
prey  of  the  cruisers  of  both  nations.  In  December,  1807,  Congress 
passed  the  Embargo  Act,  forbidding  American  vessels  to  leave  their 
harbors  and  expose  themselves  to  the  risks  of  capture.  Nothing  could 
have  been  more  ruinous  to  commerce.  In  New  York  everything  was 
changed  in  five  months  from  business  and  bustle  to  stagnation  and 
idleness  at  wharves  and  on  the  streets.  Ruin  was  everywhere  ram- 
pant; deserted  ships  lay  idle  and  rotting  in  the  docks,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  bankruptcies  had  occurred  before  the  spring  of  1S0S. 
Added  to  this  injury  came  deliberate  insults  on  the  part  of  (Ireat 
Britain,  acts  of  aggression  that  amounted  to  war.  She  claimed  the 
right  to  search  oiir  ships  for  alleged  deserters  from  her  navy.  In 
1800  the  British  frigate  Leander  fired  point  blank  into  an  American 
sloop  and  killed  one  of  her  men.  The  Euglish  captain's  punishment 
was  demanded  by  our  government.  He  was  sent  home  to  be  tried  by 
a  court-martial,  but  was  acquitted.  In  June.  L807,  a  bolder  trespass 
was  committed:  the  American  frigate  Chesapeake  was  accosted  off 
the  coast  of  Virginia  by  the  British  man-of-war  Leopard.  An  officer 
came  aboard  our  ship  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  four  of  her  crew. 
The  demand  was  refused,  when  the  Leopard  fired  a  broadside  into 
the  Chesapeake,  killing  three  men  and  wounding  eighteen.  The  cap- 
tain was  unprepared  for  war.  and  was  compelled  to  strike  colors  and 
allow  the  four  sailors  to  be  abducted.  Only  war  could  follow  such 
proceedings,  and  on  June  10.  1812,  the  formal  declaration  was  made 
by  President  Madison.  On  June  20,  the  news  was  already  in  New 
York,  and  awakened  the  hearty  approval  of  the  merchants  and  citi- 
zens. Of  the  loan  of  $10,000,000  called  for  by  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  New  York  furnished  five  and  a  hall'  millions,  Pennsylvania 
seven  millions,  and  Maryland  nearly  three  millions.  But  New  Eng- 
land was  opposed  to  the  war.  and  carried  her  aversion  almost  to  the 
point  of  secession.  All  the  five  New  England  States  together  took 
only  $480,700  of  the  loan.  They  actually  called  a  convention  of  dele- 
gates, which  met  at  Hartford,  at  which  it  was  voted  deliberately  not 
to  raise  money  for  the  war  except  for  t  heir  own  defense. 

New  York  citizens,  with  Mayor  De  Wilt  Clinton  at  their  head,  en- 
thusiastically entered  upon  all  the  measures  made  necessary  by  the 
war.  The  city  was  practically  defenseless  against  a  naval  attack; 
vessels  of  the  enemy  might  pass  both  through  the  Narrows  and  Hell 
(late  without  being  molested.  The  construction  of  forts  at  points  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW. YORK. 


26f> 


vantage  was  pushed  with  vigor,  and  soon  both  shores  of  the  Narrows 
bristled  with  walls  and  parapets  which  pointed  their  guns  at  too  ven- 
turesome strangers.  Castle  William  was  erected  on  Governor's 
Island,  and  Castle  Clinton  (now  Castle  Garden)  off  the  Battery,  con- 
nected with  the  shore  by  a  drawbridge.  Another  fortification  called 
the  North  Battery  arose  at  the  foot  of  Hubert  Street,  on  the  North 
River.  A  mortar  battery  was  placed  on  Bedlow  (now  Liberty)  Island. 
On  Horn's  Hook  and  Mill  Bock,  facing  Hell  Gate,  redoubts  were  built, 
and  Fort  Stevens  crowned  the  hill  at  Astoria,  commanding  a  view  of 
the  outer  and  inner  approaches  to  Hell  Gate.  The  block-house  in 
Central  Park,  facing  the  plains  of  Harlem,  is  a  relic  of  those  days  of 
alarm.  To  construct  these  many  and  widely  separated  defenses  vol- 
unteer labor  was  called  for,  and  there  was  a  ready  and  enthusiastic 
response  from  all  classes  of  citizens.  Merchants,  lawyers,  teachers, 
professors,  clerks,  students  of  the  colleges,  boys  in  school,  seized  pick- 
axes and  shovels,  and  the  work  went  on  day 
and  night.  Daily  they  went  out  in  squads  to 
Brooklyn  Heights  or  to  Harlem,  the  new  fer- 
ry boats  serving  admirably  for  their  convey- 
ance to  the  points  demanding  their  labor. 
And  this  was  no  sudden  burst  of  enthusiasm ; 
it  lasted  all  through  the  war.  As  late  as 
1814,  after  the  disgraceful  burning  of  Wash- 
ington by  the  British  invaders,  the  work  was 
resumed  with  new  vigor.  Mayor  and  cor- 
poration disdained  not  to  lead  the  citizens  in 
work  so  honorable.  The  rush  of  volunteers 
was  so  great  that  turns  had  to  be  taken  by 
the  various  trades.  Squads  of  bakers,  bar- 
bers, butchers,  students,  cartmen,  divided 
into  those  hailing  from  different  wards,  would  be  sent  out  one 
day,  and  squads  of  other  trades  or  professions  on  the  next.  The 
harvest  moon  in  August  was  utilized  so  as  to  give  employment 
to  those  who  could  not  be  given  places  iu  the  daytime.  When 
there  was  a  call  for  twenty  thousand  men  to  be  stationed  in 
and  about  the  city  to  man  these  fortifications,  the  corporation 
raised  the  requisite  funds,  trusting  for  reimbursement  by  the 
government.  Volunteers  also  came  forward  in  ample  numbers  to 
fill  the  quota,  and  Major-General  Ebenezer  Stevens  was  placed 
in  command.  He  had  been  an  officer  in  the  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion; though  not  before  a  resident  of  New  York,  so  many  of  the  men 
of  the  regiment  he  had  commanded  were  from  that  city  that  he  was 
induced  to  settle  there  after  the  Evacuation.  He  became  a  leading- 
merchant,  avoiding  partisan  connection  in  politics.  The  fort  at  As- 
toria was  named  after  him  because  he  owned  a  country-seat  there. 
A  feature  of  the  war  of  1812  in  local  New  York  history  was  the 


266 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


frequent  honors  paid  by  corporation  and  citizens  to  the  heroes  of  our 
brilliant  naval  victories.  In  quick  succession  occurred  the  defeat  of 
the  British  frigate  Guerriere  by  Captain  Hull  in  the  Constitu- 
tion, on  August  L9,  1812;  that  of  the  Frolic  by  the  Wasp,  under 
Captain  Jones.  October  IS;  of  the  Macedonian  by  Oap.ain  De- 
catur in  the  United  States.  October  2."):  of  the  Java  by  the  Con- 
stitution, under  Captain  Bainbridge,  October  29;  while  on  Feb- 
ruary 24.  L813,  Captain  Lawrence,  one  of  her  own  citizens,  in  the 
Hornet,  defeated  the  British  sloop-of-war  Peacock.  All  these 
officers,  as  they  passed  through  the  city,  were  received  with  great 
ceremony,  and  presented  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  in  a  gold  box; 
a  subscription  was  raised  privately  among  the  citizens  and  handsome 
swords  presented  to  Hull  and  his  officers,  and  he  was  requested  to  sit 
for  his  portrait  at  the  city's  expense.  Swords  were  also  presented  to 
some  of  the  other  victors,  and  a  grand  banquet  given  to  both  Hull 
and  Decatur  after  the  hitter's  exploit.  Nor  was  the  crew  of  the 
Macedonian  forgotten  when  that  ship  was  brought  into  port.  They 
were  given  a  dinner  at  the  City  Hotel,  to  which  four  hundred  of  the 
brave  tars  sat  down.  Lawrence's  and  Bainbridge's  portraits  were 
also  requested.  On  June  1,  1813,  occurred  the  fatal  action  between 
the  Chesapeake  and  Shannon,  in  which  Captain  Lawrence  and 
Lieutenant  Ludlow  were  killed.  On  September  13  their  bodies  wen4 
brought  to  New  York,  and  conducted  to  their  graves  in  Trinity 
church-yard  in  the  presence  of  a  concourse  of  from  twenty  to  thirty 
thousand  people.  The  line  of  the  procession  was  formed  at  ten  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  yet  the  march  was  not  finished  till  late  in  tin-  after- 
noon, so  eager  were  men  of  all  ranks  and  parties  to  do  honor  to  the 
fallen  heroes  of  the  new  and  rising  navy  of  the  Union. 

While  men  were  still  lighting  in  distant  America,  a  treaty  of  peace 
was  signed  at  Ghent  by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  States  and 
Lngland.  on  December  24.  1814.  Had  the  telegraph  then  bound 
Europe  and  America  together  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  would  not 
have  been  fought  on  .January  S.  1815;  but  then  we  would  have 
missed  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  our  arms,  and  Jackson  might 
never  have  been  President  of  the  United  States.  It  was  on  St.  Val- 
entine's Day.  February  14.  L815,  that  the  news  of  peace  reached  New- 
York,  while  on  the  lit  h  had  come  that  from  New  Orleans.  The  two 
circumstances  put  the  citizens  into  a  humor  for  celebrating,  and 
Washington's  birthday  being  so  near  at  hand,  that  day  was  set  apart 
for  a  grand  public  dinner.  In  the  evening,  at  the  request  of  the  cor- 
poration, the  citizens  made  bright  their  houses  with  illuminations. 

It  was  almost  with  a  frenzy  of  joy  that  the  new  s  of  peace  was  re- 
ceived in  the  city.  The  vessel  supposed  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  tidings 
was  sighted  just  as  night  set  in.  So  there  was  suspense  until  a  boat 
was  seen  to  approach  by  those  eagerly  peering  into  the  darkness  from 
the  edge  of  the  Battery.    On  landing,  the  occupants  made  known 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


267 


their  errand.  The  news  spread  like  wildfire.  Men  shouted  "  Peace! 
peace!  peace!  "  as  they  ran  like  mad  along  the  streets.  Those  within 
their  houses,  as  they  heard  the  shouts,  left  home  and  gathered  in 
groups  to  discuss  the  glad  deliverance.  A  concert  was  going  on  in 
the  City  Hotel.  Suddenly  a  man  rushed  into  the  audience  room, 
waved  a  handkerchief  and  shouted  "  Peace!  Peace!  Peace!"  The 
instruments  and  singers  were  of  no  further  account  to  the  people — 
the  hall  was  empty  in  a  moment.  Tens  of  thousands  of  people  were 
out  all  night,  going  up  and  down  with  candles,  lamps,  and  torches.  No 
one  could  find  it  in  his  heart  to  settle  down  to«  sleep  on  such  an  occa- 
sion. Neither  was  this  excessive  joy  to  be  wondered  at,  for  no  other 
city  had  so  conspicuously  felt  the  calamity  of  the  war  and  of  the 
causes  that  led  to  it.  It  had  been  to  it  the  sudden  paralysis  of  all 
business  and  prosperity.  Now,  soon  matters  readjusted  themselves. 
Commerce  revived  rapidly;  indeed,  received  such  a  stimulus  that  men 
grew  reckless  in  investments  and  schemes  for  money-making,  and  a 
mild  panic  contributed  to  bring  them  to  their  senses  in  1818-1819.  It 
is  recorded  that  this  prosperity  in  trade  was  largely  due  to  the  action 
of  the  great  continental  powers  of  Europe,  who  were  anxious  to  estab- 
lish trade  relations  with  the  United  States.  As  after  the  Revolution, 
Great  Britain  was  so  foolish  and  short-sighted  as  to  nurse  her  spite 
for  comparative  defeat.  She  could  not  forgive  the  naval  victories 
especially.  Whatever  other  nations  might  desire  to  do  in  the  way  of 
trade  with  us,  the  two  countries  that  are  always  bound  to  derive  from 
and  to  bestow  upon  each  other  the  greatest  benefits  in  commerce,  are 
unquestionably  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  But  Ave  will 
return  to  these  commercial  aspects  of  our  history  later  in  the  proper 
place,  and  follow  the  course  of  events  of  a  more  general  nature. 

One  still  meets  occasionally  an  old  inhabitant  (if  not  "  the  oldest  '  i 
who  can  tell  as  a  reminiscence  of  his  childhood  days  of  the  exodus  of 
the  citizens  from  the  lower  parts  of  the  city  to  Greenwich,  in  1822,  on 
account  of  the  visitation  of  the  yellow  fever.  There  had  been  several 
severe  winters  in  rapid  succession  from  1817  to  1820.  But  none  the 
less,  the  microbes  returned  or  were  imported  on  vessels  not  too 
strictly  quarantined  in  those  days.  In  the  year  1819  the  scourge  was 
present  in  the  city,  but  it  was  particularly  virulent  in  1822,  "  the  year 
of  the  yellow  fever,''  as  we  have  often  heard  it  called.  On  July  13  its 
ravages  began,  and  by  November  2,  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-six 
people  had  been  carried  off.  There  was  a  perfect  stampede  out  of 
town.  Carts,  wagons,  carriages  conveying  everything  that  was  mov- 
able were  constantly  going  out  on  Broadway  and  Greenwich  Street 
toward  the  open  portions  of  the  island.  Greenwich  was  at  that  time 
quite  a  village  by  itself.  There  were  no  signs  of  approaching  blocks 
along  Broadway  anywhere  above  Canal  Street.  Between  Canal 
Street  and,  say,  about  where  Clarkson  and  Carmine  streets  now  are, 
the  openness  of  the  country  was  quite  marked,  although  somewhat  of 


268 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


a  settlement  had  grown  about  the  Spring  Street  Market.  At  the  foot 
of  Amos  (now  "West  10th)  Street  stood  the  State  Prison.  It  was  the 
second  reared  in  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  its  erection  in  179G, 
being  a  large  stone  building,  surrounded  by  a  high  wall,  duly  paced  by 
an  armed  sentry  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night.  It  was  afterward 
converted  into  a  brewery.  In  the  neighborhood  of  this  institution, 
too,  houses  had  begun  to  be  built  on  the  streets  laid  out  in  its  vicinity. 
Even  in  1809  a  house  would  be  found  here  and  there  in  Bleeckcr 
Street  or  Grove  or  Christopher,  or  beyond.  But  now  the  whole  of 
lower  New  York  seemed  to  be  coming  to  Greenwich.  There  was  no 
longer  any  business  done  below  Liberty  Street,  a  high  board  fence 

being  stretched  across  the  island  along  this 
"    I  street  as  a  quarantine  measure.     All  the 

§;  banks  were  at  Greenwich,  and  Bank  Street 


MURRAY  STREET  IN  1882. 

Mr.  Marselus,  pastor  of  the  Beformed  Church,  at  the  corner  of 
Amos  (West  10th)  and  Bleeckcr  streets,  tells  of  some  of  the  trans- 
formations taking  place  around  him.  The  corner  of  Hammond 
(West  11th)  and  Fourth  streets  was  a  cornfield  on  Saturday,  and  on 
Monday  there  Avas  a  boardingdiouse  or  hotel  there  capable  of  accom- 
modating three  hundred  guests,  of  course,  only  frame  buildings 
could  be  put  up  in  such  a  hurry,  and  all  the  structures  in  the  vicinity 
were  but  of  a  temporary  nature.  Yet  in  1823  the  scourge  was  worse, 
if  possible,  and  the  flimsy  buildings  had  to  be  occupied  again.  Even 
the  ferry-boats  changed  their  landing-places,  and  came  up  toward 
Greenwich  on  both  sides  of  the  island.  In  1821  a  Quarantine  Station 
had  been  established  on  Staten  Island.    Perhaps  the  working  of  it 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


269 


was  not  very  efficient  in  the  earlier  years,  but  these  visitations  must 
have  put  it  upon  its  mettle,  for  the  yellow  fever  did  not  again  attain 
the  proportions  of  an  epidemic  in  our  city  after  1823. 

It  affords  a  pleasant  relief  from  the  tales  of  war  and  pestilence  to 
turn  to  an  event  signalizing  the  year  1824,  when  the  city  outdid  itself 
in  paying  honors  to  a  distinguished  visitor  who  brought  with  him 
memories  of  the  war  for  independence.  Lafayette  had  revisited  the 
scenes  of  the  war  and  his  beloved  Washington,  in  the  year  after  the 
Evacuation,  or  1784,  staying  from  August  till  about  Christmas.  Dur- 
ing the  French  Revolution  he  had  borne  a  noble  part,  and  would  have 
restrained  his  countrymen  from  their  radical  and  sanguinary  pro- 
ceedings, having  in  mind  the  self-restraint  wherewith  liberty  was 
utilized  as  a  blessing  in  America,  and  making  for  himself  as  a  model 
the  nobly  unselfish  and  unambitious  conduct  of  the  great  Washing- 
ton. Yet,  for  the  part  he  took  against  the  men  who  instituted  a  reign 
of  terror  he  was  forced  to  flee  his  native  country  for  his  life;  and  for 
the  service  to  liberty  he  had  rendered  in  America  and  in  France  he 
was  imprisoned  by  the  despot  of  Austria.  In  that  prison  he  lin- 
gered until  Napoleon's  victories  laid  Austria  at  his  feet,  and  he  re- 
fused to  negotiate  a  peace  until  Lafayette  had  been  set  free.  Such  a 
man,  for  all  he  had  done  for  America  and  suffered  in  the  cause  of 
liberty,  appealed  strongly  to  the  enthusiasm  of  our  citizens.  When 
after  an  interval  of  just  forty  years  he  conceived  the  wish  to  visit  the 
United  States,  it  fortunately  came  to  the  knowledge  of  our  govern- 
ment, and  one  of  our  gallant  ships  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  him- 
self and  his  son,  George  Washington  Lafayette,  and  suite,  to  convey 
them  to  our  shores.  But  Lafayette  declined  the  offer,  not  wishing  to 
be  a  burden  on  the  nation,  but  to  come  as  a  private  citizen  on  a  friend- 
ly and  informal  visit.  So  he  took  passage  on  a  packet  sailing  be- 
tween Havre  and  New  York.  The  passage  was  prosperous  and  rapid; 
leaving  Havre  on  July  13,  it  passed  the  Narrows  on  Sunday,  August 
15,  1824,  and  anchored  off  Staten  Island.  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  who 
had  been  Governor  of  New  York,  and  was  now  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  resided  on  Staten  Island,  and  the  distinguished  visitor 
was  waited  upon  by  him  and  invited  to  spend  the  night  at  his  house. 
The  next  day,  ere  the  packet  proceeded  to  her  landing-place,  a  bril- 
liant naval  procession  was  seen  to  wind  around  out  of  the  East  River 
and  past  Governor's  Island  toward  Staten  Island.  As  they  came 
near  the  yardarms  of  ships  were  manned,  the  vessels  dressed  in  all 
their  colors,  and  bands  of  music  were  heard  to  play.  Lafayette  was 
taken  entirely  by  surprise.  He  had  no  suspicion  that  all  this  display 
was  meant  to  do  him  honor.  He  found  from  this  hour  that  the  nation 
he  had  served  so  well  would  not  allow  him  to  come  to  our  shores  and 
pass  through  her  cities  like  a  private  gentleman.  He  was  assured 
that  he  was  looked  upon  as  the  nation's  guest. 

It  was  the  proud  privilege  of  New  York  to  lead  in  the  treatment 


270 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


that  became  so  unique  a  visitor.  She  had  uot  much  time  t<>  prepare 
for  his  reception,  but  nowhere  could  it  have  been  more  heartfelt  and 
more  splendid.  One  of  the  steamships  came  alongside  and  took  the 
Marquis  on  board,  whereupon  the  procession  fell  into  line  behind  it 
on  its  return  to  the  city.  As  his  boat  passed  Governor's  Island  a 
salute  of  guns  was  fired  which  was  the  signal  for  all  the  forts  in  the 
harbor  to  belch  forth  flame  and  sound.  In  this  joined  also  the  steam 
frigate  Fulton,  constructed  in  1814  by  the  inventor,  with  cannon- 
proof  sides,  and  which  would  have  done  marvels  if  the  war  had  not 
then  terminated.  It  was  useful  on  this  day  in  firing  salutes  of  wel- 
come. At  Castle  Garden  Lafayette  reviewed  the  military,  after  which 
he  entered  a  barouche  and  was  driven  to  the  City  Hall,  now  only 
about  twelve  years  old,  where  the  .Mayor  introduced  Lafayette  to  the 


ARRIVAL  (>K   LAFAYETTE  IN'  1834. 


Common  Council,  who  made  him  a  complimentary  address,  and  as- 
sured him  he  was  the  city's  guest.  After  another  review  of  troops, 
the  Council  and  their  guest  were  driven  to  the  City  Hotel,  corner  of 
Broadway  and  Cedar  Street,  where  a  suite  of  rooms  had  been  set 
apart  for  the  visitor,  and  the  whole  party  partook  of  a  dinner.  In 
the  evening  fireworks  and  illuminations  and  torchlight  processions 
attested  the  joy  and  interest  of  the  citizens.  An  immense  balloon 
was  sent  up.  ablaze  with  light,  from  Castle  Garden,  representing  an 
ancient  knight  on  horseback  in  full  armor,  like  Bayard  of  Prance, 
sans  peurei  sans  reproche,  and  betokening  the  nobility  of  the  great  and 
good  Lafayette.  From  day  to  day  the  Marquis  visited  various  points 
of  interest.  A  reception  was  tendered  him  at  the  rooms  of  the  His- 
torical Society,  where  he  sat  in  a  chair  once  occupied  by  Louis  XVI. . 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


271 


which  had  beeii  presented  to  the  society  by  Gouverneur  Morris.  In 
a  graceful  address  by  Dr.  Hosack  (who  was  present  at  the  Burr-Ham- 
ilton duel)  he  was  informed  that  he  had  been  elected  an  honorary 
member.  On  August  20  Lafayette  was  escorted  by  a  squadron  of 
cavalry  and  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  in  carriages  to  the  city  bound- 
ary at  Kingsbridge,  on  his  way  to  Boston.  On  September  10  he 
passed  through  the  city  again  on  his  way  to  the  middle  and  southern 
States,  when  the  feature  of  the  occasion  was  a  sacred  concert  in  St. 
Paul's.  In  September,  1825,  Lafayette  returned  home  in  a  frigate 
named  Brandy  wine,  after  the  first  battle  in  which  he  fought  for  the 
nation's  liberty. 

It  is  a  natural  transition  from  one  naval  parade  to  another,  and 
that  only  a  little  more  than  a  year  later.  There  is  no  city  in  the 
world  that  is  more  advantageously  situated  for  such  displays,  and 
it  is  no  wonder  several  have  to  be  recorded  in  the  course  of  her  an- 
nals. If  in  1821  New  York  set  out  to  honor  a  distinguished  guest,  in 
the  parade  of  1825  she  had  good  reason  to  honor  and  congratulate  her- 
self on  the  foresight  and  enterprise  of  her  citizens.  Well  might  she 
celebrate  in  a  manner  never  to  be  forgotten  that  achievement  which 
was  to  bring  her  untold  wealth,  and  make  her  not  only  the  finest  port 
of  entrance  on  the  continent,  but  also  the  natural  outlet  for  all  the 
vast  resources  of  the  interior,  both  of  her  own  State  and  of  those  vast 
northwestern  commonwealths  that  were  just  about  to  be  born.  For 
this  is  what  the  Erie  Canal  meant  to  our  city. 

We  have  confined  our  attention  pretty  closely  to  Manhattan  Island 
so  far.  as  in  duty  bound  not  to  go  far  afield  with  the  task  before  us; 
but  there  was  a  big  country  back  of  Manhattan  Island.  New  York 
State  had  been  the  first  to  yield  her  claims  to  the  vague  and  \ ;  t 
regions  "  toward  the  Pacific,"  or  the  Mississippi,  and  had  thereby 
made  possible,  after  the  other  States  had  done  likew  ise,  the  endow- 
ment of  the  Federal  Government  with  some  sort  of  being  and  body, 
for  without  public  domains  it  must  ever  have  remained  an  abstrac- 
tion as  feeble  as  the  Confederation.  In  1825  these  indefinite  regions 
were  occupied  by  at  least  twenty-five  States.  Long  before  this  it  had 
been  seen  by  men  of  brain  and  understanding  that  such  a  condition 
was  bound  to  prevail,  and  that  these  regions  back  toward  the  Missis- 
sippi (and,  since  1803,  hci/oml  the  Mississippi),  which  were  ours,  must 
have  a  chance  to  reach  the  seaboard  with  their  products,  of  which 
they  had  a  source  inexhaustible  in  abundance  and  variety.  What  so 
natural  a  highway  for  the  northwestern  territory  as  its  embosomed 
inland  fresh-water  seas  and  the  valley  of  the  Hudson,  if  these  two 
could  only  be  united  by  a  channel  for  transportation.  That  was  the 
problem,  and  it  began  to  be  discussed  even  in  the  days  of  Washing- 
ton. Gouverneur  Morris,  who  comes  before  us  in  so  many  ways,  was 
the  one  first  to  put  on  paper  a  plan  for  connecting  Lake  Erie  and  the 
Hudson.    Surveys  were  ordered  in  1810,  Morris  and  DeWitt  Clinton 


272 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


appealing  for  aid  to  Congress  as  being  a  project  involving  the  benefit 
of  many  States.  But  the  Republicans  (or  anti-Federalists),  now  in 
control  at  Washington,  had  no  great  love  tor  the  doctrine  of  "  inter- 
nal improvements,"  savoring  too  much  of  centralization  of  power. 
The  war  of  1812  interrupted  all  procedures  of  this  character,  but  De 
Witt  Clinton  took  it  up  again  later.  Unfortunately,  party  spirit 
managed  to  make  an  issue  of  it  whereby  Clinton  could  be  antagon- 
ized and  overthrown,  and  "  Clinton's  Ditch  "  became  a  byword  and 
reproach.  Finally,  on  April  17,  1817.  an  act  passed  the  legislature 
after  a  heated  discussion  authorizing  the  raising  of  funds  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  canal  353  miles  long,  forty  feet  at  the  surface,  narrow- 
ing lu  eighteen  at  the  bottom,  witli  a  depth  of  four  feet  of  water.  De 
Witt  Clinton  was  made  president  of  the  board  of  commissioners. 
This  same  year,  on  July  1,  Clinton  became  Governor  of  the  State  ami 
on  July  1  presided  at  the  ceremonies  attending  the  breaking  of  the 
first  ground  near  Koine.  The  construction  went  on  in  two  directions 
from  this  point.  The  cost  was  estimated  at  84. 571, 813.  The  entire 
cost,  when  the  finishing  touches  had  been  made  in  1830.  was  found 
to  be  |7,143,789.  On  October  22,  1819.  the  first  boat  was  drawn  from 
Rome  to  Utica,  with  Governor  Clinton.  Chancellor  Livingston  and 
other  prominent  promoters  of  the  enterprise  aboard.  In  lM'4.  politi- 
cal hatred,  still  connected  with  the  project,  caused  a  wantonly  need- 
less removal  of  Clinton  from  the  Board;  but  the  indignation  aroused 
thereby  sent  him  back  in  triumph  into  the  gubernatorial  chair,  just 
in  time  to  be  the  principal  figure  in  the  grand  celebration  of  the  open- 
ing of  the  canal  to  public  use  in  182& 

The  exercises  commenced  at  a  distance  from  New  York,  but  she 
was  made  a  participator  very  soon  after  they  began.  At  1(1  o'clock 
a.  m.,  October  26,  1825,  Governor  Clinton.  Chancellor  Livingston, 
General  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer.  Thurlow  Weed.  Col.  William 
L.  Stone,  of  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  the  official  historiographer 
of  the  celebration,  and  other  distinguished  gentlemen,  embarked 
on  the  first  canal  boat  that  was  to  undertake  the  journey,  the 
Seneca  Chief,  at  Buffalo.  The  start  was  made:  immediately  a 
gun  boomed,  and  at  the  utmost  distance  where  it  could  be  heard 
another  was  tired,  and  so  the  signal  went  all  along  the  line  of 
canal  and  river  down  to  New  York  and  Sandy  Hook.  In  one  hour 
and  thirty  minutes  the  people  of  New  York  knew  that  the  party  had 
begun  their  journey.  At  Albany  the  steamer  Chancellor  Living- 
ston took  on  board  the  distinguished  guests,  and  took  in  tow  a 
large  fleet  of  canal  packets.  At  about  five  in  the  morning  of  Novem- 
ber 4.  the  fleet  reached  the  city,  and  anchored  off  tin'  State  Prison  at 
Greenwich,  about  where  Christopher  Streel  Ferry  is  now.  At  sun 
rise  the  booming  of  cannon  and  ringing  of  bells  announced  to  i  he  city 
that  the  Governor  and  the  fleet  from  Buffalo  had  arrived.  They  were 
soon  greeted  by  an  array  of  vessels  coming  from  below.    The  Mayor 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


273 


and  Corporation  came  on  board  to  extend  their  congratulations. 
Taking  the  Governor  and  his  party  on  board  their  steamers,  they 
went  back  to  the  Battery  and  lay  there  to  review  the  fleet  from  Buf- 
falo as  it  filed  past,  under  the  booming  of  salutes  from  Castle  Will- 
iam. A  United  States  schooner,  the  Porpoise,  lay  just  outside  Sandy 
Hook.  Thither  the  Governor  and  suit  were  taken,  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  naval  procession  formed  in  a  circle  around  her.  It  was  one 
of  those  ideal  days  we  so  often  enjoy  in  this  latitude  early  in  Novem- 
ber; there  was  not  a  wind  stirring,  and  the  sea  lay  as  smooth  and  al- 
most as  motionless  as  glass.  Now  occurred  Hie  most  impressive  por- 
tion of  the  ceremony.  The  Governor,  lifting  up  a  small  cask  con- 
taining water  from  Lake  Erie,  the  stopper  was  removed,  and  the 
water  poured  into  the  ocean,  "  intended,''  as  the  Governor  said,  "  to 
indicate  and  commemorate  the  navigable  communication  which  has 
been  accomplished  between  our  Mediterranean  seas  and  the  Atlantic 
Ocean."  Now  came  forward  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchell,  who  had  been 
for  some  time  collecting  bottles  of  water  from  various  prominent 
rivers  of  the  world,  and  emptied  into  the  ocean  water  from  the 
(ranges  and  Indus,  of  Asia;  the  Nile  and  Gambia,  of  Africa;  the 
Thames,  the  Seine,  the  Rhine  and  Danube,  of  Europe;  the  Mississippi 
and  Columbia,  of  North  America,  and  the  Orinoco,  Amazon,  and  La 
Plata,  of  South  America. 

In  the  meantime  festivities  on  a  grand  scale  had  been  conducting 
on  land.  A  procession  four  and  a  half  miles  long  had  been  defiling 
through  the  principal  streets  gayly  decorated  with  flags  and  bunting 
and  evergreens  and  flowers.  Societies  and  trades  upon  floats  repre- 
sented allegories  indicative  of  their  objects  or  occupations.  It  was 
arranged  that  the  head  of  this  pageant  should  reach  the  Battery 
about  the  time  the  head  of  the  naval  procession  should  arrive  from 
Sandy  Hook,  and  the  dignitaries  of  the  State  and  city  lay  near 
enough  the  shore  in  their  boats  to  review  the  procession  as  it  passed. 
The  persons  reviewing  fell  into  the  rear,  and  inarched  up  Broadway 
to  the  City  Hall.  At  night  illuminations  and  fireworks  made  the  city 
one  blaze  of  light,  the  City  Hall  especially  presenting  a  spectacle  of 
marvelous  and  sparkling  beauty.  "  Such  rockets,"  says  the  histor- 
ian of  the  day,  "  were  never  before  seen  in  New  York.  They  were 
uncommonly  large.  Now  they  shot  forth  alternately  showers  of  fiery 
serpents,  and  dragons,  gorgons  and  hydras  and  chimeras  dire;  and 
nowT  they  burst  forth  and  rained  down  showers  of  stars  floating  in  the 
atmosphere  like  balls  of  liquid  silver.  The  volcanic  eruption  of  fire- 
balls and  rockets  with  which  this  exhibition  was  concluded  afforded 
a  spectacle  of  vast  beauty  and  sublimity."  We  would  say  that  the 
eruption  of  fine  phrases  over  so  rare  a  show  indicates  that  editors  of 
New  York  journals  were  slightly  affected  with  provincial  simplicity  in 
those  days.  On  the  evening  of  Monday,  November  7,  the  festivities 
were  concluded  with  a  grand  ball  in  Lafayette  Amphitheater  in  Lau- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


275 


reus  Street  (later  South  Fifth  Avenue)  given  by  the  officers  of  the  mili- 
tia. We  conclude  this  account  with  a  citation  once  more  from  the  ap- 
pointed chronicle]-  of  the  event,  who  at  least  enjoys  the  inestimable 
advantage  over  later  scribes  of  having  been  an  eye-witness  of  and  a 
partaker  in  the  ceremonies.  His  style  is  exceedingly  Sophomoric 
(nothing  else  can  be  looked  for  from  an  editor  in  the  twenties),  but 
the  sentiments  of  praise  for  the  State  are  just,  and  may  well  be  shared 
by  us  as  we  read  this  day:  "  For  a  single  State  to  achieve  such  a  vic- 
tory, not  only  over  the  doubts  and  fears  of  the  wary,  but  over  the  ob- 
stacles of  nature,  causing  miles  of  massive  rocks  at  the  mountain 
ridges  to  yield  to  its  power,  turning  the  current  of  error  as  well  as 
that  of  the  Tonawanda,  piling  up  the  waters  of  the  mighty  Niagara, 
as  well  as  those  of  the  beautiful  Hudson;  in  short,  causing  a  navi- 
gable river  to  flow  with  gentle  current  down  the  steepy  mount  of 
Lockport;  to  leap  the  river  Genesee;  to  " — (but  really  the  tropes  that 
follow  are  too  splendid,  and  we  hasten  to  the  close)  .  .  .  "  and  all 
in  the  space  of  eight  short  years,  was  a  work  of  which  the  oldest  and 
richest  nations  of  Christendom  might  be  proud." 

But  New  York  City  did  something  also  for  others.  Greece  was  in 
the  throes  of  her  struggle  for  independence,  and  in  1825  the  news- 
papers of  the  city  rang  with  appeals  for  the  heroic  nation,  wThich 
might  have  put  to  shame  the  indifference  of  the  times  that  are  upon 
us  now.  Many  ships  loaded  with  grain,  flour,  clothing,  were  sent  to 
relieve  the  impoverished  Greeks,  and  large  sums  of  money  forwarded. 
This  did  much  to  encourage  t  hem  to  hold  out  until  their  object  was  at- 
tained, at  least  to  the  extent  of  casting  off  the  yoke  of  Turkey. 
Whether  their  object  was  precisely  to  get  a  monarch  from  the  regions 
of  Scandinavia,  and  be  ruled  by  a  family  whose  scion  has  lately  showai 
the  Turks  a  fine  pair  of  heels,  may  be  seriously  called  into  question. 

Invention  as  illustrated  by  Fulton's  steamboat,  and  enterprise  as 
exemplified  by  the  Erie  Canal,  were  destined  to  prepare  a  future  for 
New  York,  the  greatness  of  which  none  dared  even  hope  in  that  early 
period  of  the  century.  Yet,  strangely  enough,  her  authorities  were 
actually  laying  out  the  lines  for  a  growth  in  population  which  wrould 
have  seemed  miraculous  to  them  could  they  have  been  told  of  it.  In 
1807  the  city  had  not  made  its  big  jump  to  Greenwich  yet.  and  that 
even  in  1822  and  1823  was  only  meant  as  a  temporary  expedient. 
The  solidly  built-up  portion  of  the  town  might  be  bounded  by  Leon- 
ard Street,  to  Broadway,  a  circuit  around  the  Collect,  then  up  along 
Mulberry  to  Bullock  (Broome)  Street,  then  along  Broome  east  to  Suf- 
folk, back  past  Grand  and  Division  streets,  and  along  Montgomery 
to  Water  Street  or  the  East  River.  It  was  not  for  nothing  that  Hous- 
ton Street  was  called  North  Street,  for  it  wTas  indeed  very  far  north  of 
the  utmost  boundaries  of  solid  habitations.  Yet  what  do  we  find 
done  by  a  commission  composed  of  our  old  friend  Gouverneur  Morris 
and  Simeon  De  Witt  and  John  Rutherford  ?  Calling  the  next  street  to 


276 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  XEW  YORK 


Houston  First  (Street,  they  arranged  a  plan  of  thoroughfares  running 
up  as  far  as  155th  Street,  crossing  avenues  numbered  east  to  west 
from  1  to  12;  east  of  First  Avenue,  t lie  alphabet  to  be  used  to  desig- 
nate those  for  which  there  was  room.  At  regular  intervals,  of  about 
ten  blocks  transverse  avenues  were  to  run  east  and  west,  as  at  14th. 
23d,  34th,  42d,  57th.  72d,  79th.  86th,  96th,  1 06th,  116th,  125th,  135th, 
145th, and  155th.  In  short, these  audacious  persons  mapped  out  in  L807 
the  sj'stem  of  streets  far  up  the  island  wherewith  we  are  now  famil- 
iar, and  which,  while  not  picturesque  in  form  nor  inventive  iu  designa- 
tion, is  exceedingly  convenient  and  quite  a  godsend  to  a  stranger 
who  would  be  hopelessly  lost  in  Brooklyn.  No  wonder  they  apolo- 
gized for  their  conduct:  "  To  some  it  may  seem  a  matter  of  surprise," 
they  wrote.  "  that  the  whole  island  of  Manhattan  has  not  been  laid 
out  as  a  city";  they  left  precious  little  not  laid  out.  "  To  others.'* 
they  continued.  "  it  may  be  a  subject  of  merriment  that  the  commis- 
sioners have  provided  space  for  a  greater  population  than  is  collected 
at  any  spot  on  this  side  of  China.  They  have  in  this  been  governed 
by  the  shape  of  the  ground.  It  is  not  improbable  that  considerable 
numbers  may  be  collected  at  Harlem  before  the  high  hills  to  the 
southward  of  it  shall  be  built  upon  as  a  city;  and  it  is  improbable  that 
for  centuries  to  come  the  ground  north  of  Harlem  flats  will  be  covered 
by  houses."  We  now  know  that  the  centuries  have  been  contracted 
into  decades.  Events  have  proved  how  much  faster  tilings  move  in 
America  than  men's  boldest  expectations  dared  hope  ninety  years 
ago.  Surely  it  must  have  been  some  wag  who  suggested  that  the 
rear  of  the  City  Hall  was  built  of  brown  stone  (since  marbleized)  be- 
cause it  was  not  supposed  at  the  time  it  was  built  that  many  of  ,he 
citizens  would  ever  live  on  that  side  of  it  to  see  it  as  t  hey  came  down 
town. 

It  is  a  pity  that  some  of  the  picturesque  features  of  the  island— 
and  even  of  the  city,  as  not  yet  too  severely  usurping  the  island — have 
been  made  to  disappear  in  carrying  out  the  rigorous  plan — on  the 
square — of  our  worthy  commissioners.  A  landscape  gardener  ought 
to  have  been  added  to  their  Hoard.  But  since  such  artist  was  not  until 
lately  deemed  a  necessary  adjunct  to  a  Park  Board,  we  could 
hardly  have  expected  such  an  intelligent  provision  in  1807.  Who 
would  not  love  to  see  Canal  Street  again  in  its  ancient  dress,  as  it  was 
in  1811?  All  across  the  island  from  North  to  East  River  there  ran 
that  depression,  which  may  still  be  traced  by  a  diligent  student  of  the 
city's  topography.  It  included  the  greater  and  less  Collect  ponds, 
extensive  swamps  or  salt-meadows,  and  more  or  less  actively  flowing 
creeks  carrying  in  and  out  the  waters  as  the  tides  rose  and  fell.  It 
was  thought  that  both  looks  and  health  would  be  improved  if  a  canal 
were  dug.  and  by  a  wider,  deeper,  and  more  regular  channel  the  in- 
terior waters  or  swampy  grounds  could  be  drained.  This  was  ac- 
cordingly done,  and  as  ;i  result  there  was  created,  even  at  that  late 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK.  277 

date,  a  perfect  representation  of  one  of  the  streets  of  the  city's  earliest 
namesake,  Amsterdam.  Canal  Street  was  made  of  a  width  of  one 
hundred  feet  from  building  line  to  building  line.  In  the  center  ran 
the  canal,  forty  feet  wide,  with  rows  of  trees  planted  on  each  bank, 
and  the  thoroughfares  on  either  side  were  thirty  feet  wide.  Where 
the  canal  crossed  Broadway  a  stone  bridge,  or  arched  culvert,  was 
erected. 

Not  only  have  these  evidences  of  diversity  in  the  island's  landscape 
disappeared,  but  there  are  other  streams  whose  departure  we  must 
mourn.  Little  would  we  to-day  suspect  they  had  ever  been.  "  Gram- 
ercy,"  as  already  mentioned,  is  a  faint  reminder  of  the  crooked  little 
stream  that  ran  through  Mayor  Duane's  farm  where  the  thus-named 
Park  is  now.  Minetta  Lane  and  Street  are  other  reminders  of  a  brook 
or  creek.  Few 
uptown  resi- 
dents w  o  u  1  d 
know  where  to 
find  these.  They 
are  not  a  speci- 
ally delectable 
neighborh  o  o  d. 
T  he  two  are 
at  right  angles 
to  each  other; 
the  "Lane" 
r  u  n  n  i  n  g 
straight  from 
the  beginning 
of  Sixth  Ave- 
nue to  Macdou- 
gal  Street,  and 
the  "  Street"  to 

Bleecker  Street,  opposite  Downing.  "  The  Minetta  was  a  famous 
stream  for  trout,"  says  "  Felix  Oldboy."  It  wTas  a  branch  (or 
indeed  two  branches,  east  and  wTest,  were  so  called)  of  the  Bestevaer 
Kil,  a  Dutch  name  meaning  Grandfather's  Creek,  which  fell  into  the 
North  River  at  the  foot  of  Hammersley  (now  West  Houston)  Street. 
Running  in  a  generally  northeastern  direction  through  Washington 
Square,  at  the  corner  of  Waverly  and  University  Places  it  took  a 
sharp  turn  northward,  and  had  its  source  somewhere  near  the  South- 
ampton Road,  or  just  about  at  the  corner  of  17th  or  18th  streets  and 
Sixth  Avenue.  It  was  only  the  other  day  that  we  were  reminded  of  its 
former  existence,  when  the  foundations  were  dug  for  a  mammoth 
store  at  the  corner  of  18th  Street  and  Sixth  Avenue,  and  an  appar- 
ently inexhaustible  supply  of  water  was  met  with.  At  about  11th 
Street,  near  Fifth  Avenue,  the  Minetta' s  eastern  branch  separated 


278 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


from  the  Kil.  and  ran  nearly  to  the  corner  of  Broadway  and  20th 
Street.  Up  in  Harlem  there  was  a  creek  running  from  some  distance 
in  the  interior  into  the  East  River,  about  where  9<>th  Street  is  now; 
but  part  of  that  water  system  lias  been  utilized  in  the  series  of  small 
lakes  and  cascades  and  murmuring  brooks  in  the  Ramble,  ending  in 
Harlem  Lake  at  the  northeastern  extremity  of  Central  Park. 

It  was  seriously  proposed  by  a  number  of  gentlemen  whose  taste 
and  foresight  are  to  be  commended,  to  utilize  the  hue  opportunities 
for  park-making  offered  by  the  Collect  Pond  and  its  surroundings. 
From  the  very  earliest  times  this  pond  has  figured  prominently  in  the 
annals  of  our  city,  from  the  unhappy  murder  of  the  Indian  in  1(>2<>  to 
the  steamboat  experiment  in  1797.  We  are  now  about  to  chronicle 
its  demise.  In  1808,  however,  it  was  suggested  that  it  be  perpetuated 
as  a  feature  of  our  city  by  purchasing  its  environs  so  far  as  owned,  to 


CORNER  CHAPEL  AND  PROVOST   STREETS  (WEST    BKOADWAY  AND 
FKANKLIN   STKKKT)  lWfi. 

banish  the  squatters,  and  beautify  this  section  with  all  the  arts  of  the 
landscape  gardener.  One  cannot  refrain  from  contemplating  with 
grief  the  letting  pass  of  so  favorable  an  opportunity  for  creating  a 
most  delicious  break  in  the  dreary  monotony  and  hardness  of  down 
town  existence.  I Sut  the  scheme  was  deemed  too  chimerical.  An- 
other company  of  capitalists  had  in  mind  cutting  a  ship-canal  from 
the  Hast  River,  through  what  is  now  "  the  Swamp"  or  leather-busi- 
ness section,  and  making  the  deep  pond  a  receptacle  for  merchant- 
men which  could  thus  be  unloaded  directly  in  front  of  the  ware- 
houses, which  would  have  been  an  imitation  of  another  conspicuous 
feature  of  the  city's  Dutch  prototype.  Even  this  would  have  afforded 
some  relief  to  the  eye.  and  have  kept  intact  a  very  valuable  provision 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


279 


of  nature.  Bui  neither  did  this  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  exceed- 
ingly weighty  common  sense  of  the  wise  men  of  Gotham.  And  now 
soon  began  the  process  which  has  resulted  in  the  utter  disappearance 
of  the  Collect.  The  neighboring  hills,  on  Broadway,  at  That  ham 
Square,  toward  the  old  Commons,  were  denuded  of  their  tops,  and 
severely  planed  down  at  their  sides,  and  the  earth  cast  into  the  suffer- 
ing, and  once  thought  unfathomable,  waters  of  the  Pond,  and  it  was 
no  more  forever.  A  final  word  as  to  its  name.  It  has  a  pious  sound, 
in  violent  contrast  with  the  impious  deed  that  first  brings  it  to  our 
notice.  But  its  derivation  is  quite  unecclesiastical:  the  shells  found 
on  its  beach,  which  helped  to  make  lime  for  mortar,  made  the  Dutch 
call  its  jutting  beach  Kalk  Hoek— Chalk  Point,  or  Hook.  Now,  in- 
elegant pronunciation  in  Dutch  would  make  of  the  monosyllable  Kalk 
a  dissyllable  Kallek,  as  tourists  in  Holland  have  heard  guards  call 
out  Delleft  instead  of  Ddft,  as  they  passed  that  historic  town.  Kal- 
lek, by  an  easy  transition,  became  Collect  to  English  ears,  without 
assistance  from  the  prayer-book. 

While  we  are  busy  regretting  bygone  things  within  our  city's  pre- 
cincts, let  us  give  a  parting  word  to  some  old  roads  now  no  more  trace- 
able. The  Bowery  Road  we  can  follow  easily  enough,  and  where  it 
began  to  be  the  Boston  Road,  at  Fourth  Avenue,  we  can  still  go  on 
along  that  thoroughfare  to  Union  Square;  but  we  should  carry  it  be- 
yond to  Madison  Square.  Here  it  turned  eastward,  and  kept  going- 
east  and  west  between  Third  and  Fourth,  sometimes  toward  Second 
or  even  First  avenues.  The  Bloomingdale  Road  is  sufficiently  re- 
called to  us  by  the  course  of  Broadway,  and  Greenwich  Road  by  thai 
of  Greenwich  Street  above  Warren  or  Chambers.  Greenwich  Lane 
is  now  Greenwich  Avenue,  and  Monument  Lane  ran  from  where  i 
struck  Washington  Square  (it  is  not  extended  thus  far  now)  to  Astor 
Place,  which  was  once  called  Art  Street.  The  Great  Kity  Road  ran 
from  the  river  road  at  foot  of  Gansevoort  Street,  past  Greenwich 
Lane  in  a  straight  line  to  where  it  met  the  Skinner  Road,  at  15th 
Street  and  Seventh  Avenue,  the  latter  having  come  from  the  river  at 
Christopher  Street,  and  making  a  right  angle  at  the  Minetta  Water 
about  11th  Street.  At  the  junction  of  Great  Kity  and  Skinner  Roads 
began  the  Southampton  Road,  which,  with  one  or  two  northeastward 
bends,  struck  the  Abingdon  Road  about  midway  between  Broadway 
and  the  Fitzroy  Road.  Part  of  the  Abingdon  Road  was  called  Lovers' 
Lane,  and  is  now  21st  Street.  The  Fitzroy  Road  began  at  Great  Kity 
Road,  at  about  14th  Street,  midway  between  Seventh  and  Eighth  ave- 
nues, and  ran  along  the  general  direction  of  Eighth  Avenue,  but  not, 
of  course,  so  mathematically  straight. 

We  have  not  given  much  attention  to  the  churches  and  their  for- 
tunes for  some  time;  but  much  had  happened  in  that  particular  of 
our  city's  life  and  appearance,  and  we  must  hasten  to  record  what  is 
most  interesting.    In  1808  there  were  thirty-three  churches  in  New 


280 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


York:  nine  Episcopalian,  three  Dutch  Reformed,  one  French  Hugue- 
not (now  also  Episcopalian),  one  German  Reformed,  one  German 
Lutheran,  one  English  Lutheran,  three  Baptist,  three  Methodist, 
one  Moravian,  six,  Presbyterian,  one  Independent  or  Congrega- 
tional, two  Quaker,  and  one  Jewish  Synagogue.  In  1803  an 
event  occurred  in  the  annals  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church, 
which  cannot  fail  to  be  of  significance  to  any  one  interested  in 
our  city's  historj'.  We  saw  that  a  complete  century  after  the 
English  conquest,  or  in  1764,  the  first  English-speaking  minister  was 
called  to  the  Dutch  Church.  After  the  Revolution  the  ancient 
vernacular  retired  more  and  more  into  the  background.  The 
Dutch  Reformed  pastors  now  all  preached  in  English,  of  whom  Dr. 
Linn  was  reputed  the  best  preacher  in  the  country,  he  also  serving  as 
Chaplain  of  the  House  of  Representatives  while  Congress  sat  in  New 
York.  To  satisfy  the  diminishing  remnant  who  still  clung  to 
the  mother  tongue,  the  South  Church  in  Garden  Street  (Ex- 
change Place)  was  set  apart  for  Dutch  services,  and  in  178!)  Dr. 
Gerardus  A.  Kuypers  was  called  from  Paramus,  X.  J.,  to  min- 
ister to  this  flock.  But  still  from  year  to  year  the  number  of 
auditors  at  the  Dutch  preaching  grew  less  and  less;  and  in  1803 
it  was  resolved  to  stop  it  altogether.  A  farewell  service  was 
held  in  the  Garden  Street  Church,  to  which  all  those  who  could 
still  understand  Dutch  flocked  from  all  parts  of  the  city.  Ii 
must  have  been  an  impressive  occasion.  No  doubt,  in  spite  of  the 
necessity  of  the  case,  it  was  a  somewhat  sad  moment  when  for  the  last 
time  that  language  was  to  be  heard  in  public  worship  which  earliest 
conveyed  the  praise  of  God  from  the  heart  of  man  on  Manhattan 
Island.  The  year  1807  was  again  notable  in  the  history  of  the  Dutch 
Reformed  denomination  in  the  city.  A  church  w  as  built  on  Franklin 
Street,  between  Church  and  Chapel  (now  West  Broadway)  streets, 
which  was  attended  by  a  congregation  having  a  separate  organiza- 
tion from  the  Collegiate  Church,  which  had  hitherto,  with  all  its 
churches,  been  the  one  and  only  church  corporation  of  that  faith.  In 
1813  something  still  stranger  happened.  One  of  its  churches,  the 
oldest  after  that  in  the  Fort,  the  South  or  Garden  Street  Church,  was 
sold  or  accorded  to  another  organization  outside  its  own.  In  the 
uptown  march  of  churches  the  hereditary  descendant  of  this  earliest 
church-building  was  found  until  recently  at  the  corner  of  LMsi  Street 
and  Fifth  Avenue,  and  is  now  on  t  he  corner  of  38thStree1  and  Madison 
Avenue,  still  called  the  South  Reformed  Church.  In  180:5  and  1S0."> 
Dutch  Reformed  Churches  were  established  in  Greenwich  and  Bloom- 
ingdale  villages  respectively;  the  one  in  Harlem  has  been  noticed  as 
founded  in  1  ('»(>().  ( )t  her  evidences  of  the  upward  (at  leasl  northward) 
trend  of  churches  are  the  removal  of  the  Cedar  Street  Presbyterian 
Church  to  Murray  Street,  which  later  went  to  lltli  Street,  near  6th 
Avenue,  and  very  recently  to  the  vicinity  of  Central  Park.    The  IIu- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


281 


iiuenot  Church  went  in  1834  from  Pine  to  Franklin  and  Church 
streets,  and  is  at  present  L'Eglise  du  Saint  Esprit  in  22d  Street,  half- 
way between  5th  and  Oth  avenues,  crowded  with  stores  on  all  sides. 
Ho  Wall  Street  Presbyterian  Church  finds  itself  at  12th  Street  and  5th 
Avenue.  The  Brick  Presbyterian  vanished  from  Beekman  and  Park 
Bow,  and  is  now  on  5th  Avenue  and  37th  Street.  The  first  Baptist 
Church  was  built  of  bluestoue,  in  1790,  in  Gold  Street,  near  Fulton; 
five  years  later  a  second  stone  church  was  built  on  Oliver  Street,  and 
a  third  in  Bose  Street,  in  1799. 

The  ravages  done  to  Trinity  in  1770  by  the  great  fire  were  of  such 
a  serious  nature  that  it  needed  to  be  entirely  rebuilt.  This  work,  be- 
gun in  1788,  was  not  completed  till  1790,  wmen,  on  March  25,  the  new 
building  was  consecrated,  standing  until  the  present  splendid  edifice 
was  reared  in  its  place  a  half-century  later.  A  pew  was  set  apart  in 
it  for  the  President,  who  then  resided  in  the  Macomb  house  nearby, 
and  had  before  that  worshiped  in  St.  Paul's,  where  his  pew  is  still  pre- 
served. On  the  site  of  the  ruined  Lutheran  Church,  corner  of  Rec- 
tor Street,  Grace  Episco- 
pal Church  was  built  be- 
fore 1808,  having  since 
emigrated  northward  to 
the  corner  of  10th  Street, 
at  the  turn  in  Broadway, 
which  gives  it  the  appear- 
ance of  standing  at  the 
head  of  that  great  thor- 
oughfare. But  of  special 
interest  is  the  enterprise 
undertaken  by  Trinity 
Corporation  in  1807.  Its 
property  extended  west- 
ward of  Broadway  far  up 
toward  Greenwich.  At  a 
distant  part  of  its  land  it 
built  the  St.  John's 
Church  on  Varick  Street, 
which  enjoys  the  distinc- 
tion  with   St.  Paul's  of 

being  still  where,  and  in  the  shape  in  which,  if  was  put  up.  Its  cosl 
was  |200.000.  It  seemed  a  sinful  extravagance  to  erect  so  costly  a 
building  out  among  the  swamps  and  outskirts  where  nobody  would 
ever  want  to  live.  The  Lispenard  salt-meadoAvs  were  all  around  it, 
not  yet  drained  by  the  canal  in  Canal  Street  north  of  it;  and  frogs  and 
snakes  held  high  and  undisturbed  revelry  in  front  of  the  structure, 
where  afterward  was  laid  out  St.  John's  Park,  and  where  now  is 
heard  the  clang  and  clamor  of  the  Hudson  River  Railroad  freight 


WASHINGTON  IRVING. 


282 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


depot.  Oue  more  dowii-town  Episcopal  Church,  not  now  to  be  found, 
and  also  not  under  Trinity's  care,  was  Christ  Church  iu  Ann  Si  reel, 
with  a  substantial  stone  building  erected  in  1794.  St.  Mark's,  on 
Stuyvesant  Street,  generally  known  as  St.  Mark's-in-t  he-Mow  cry.  be- 
cause within  the  limits  of  the  old  Director's  farm  or  "  bouwery."  was 
l.uilt  in  1  795. 

It  was  not  till  after  the  Evacuation  in  L783  that  the  Catholics  be- 
gan to  enjoy  the  unmolested  exercise  of  their  religion.  In  17S4  there 
were  eighteen  communicants  served  by  Father  Fanner.  Under  this 
assumed  name,  and  in  disguise,  the  Jesuit  Father  Stoinmeyer  had  ven- 
tured to  enter  New  York  before  the  Revolution,  and  ministered  to  a 
little  congregation  worshiping  in  the  house  of  a  German  co-religion- 
ist in  Wall  street.  Father  Farmer  left  after  the  fire  of  1770.  and 
now  on  his  return  his  flock  held  services  in  a  carpenter-shop  on  Bar- 
clay Street.  Feeling  emboldened  by  their  growth  in  numbers  as  the 
city  grew,  and  by  the  countenance  lent  b}r  the  presence  iu  the  city  of 
the  legations  of  Spain,  France,  and  other  Catholic  powers,  this  small 
congregation  purchased  lots  on  the  corner  of  Barclay  and  Church 
streets,  and  the  cornerstone  of  a  church  was  laid  with  appropriate 
ceremonies  on  October  5,  1785.  It  was  dedicated  on  November  4. 
1 786,  and  is  the  St.  Peter's  <  'hurch  which  we  may  still  see  on  the  same 
spot.  New  York  City  was  made  the  see  of  a  Catholic  diocese  in  1808. 
There  was  slill  some  violence  of  prejudice  against  Catholics  in  the 
hearts  of  their  fellow-citizens,  and  a  mob  of  "  Highbinders  "  attempt- 
ed to  do  injury  to  St.  Peter's  and  the  F-ish  settlement  in  City  Hall 
Place  (then  Augustin  Street),  in  1806.  A  second  church  for  Catho- 
lics was  1  bought  necessary  in  1809,  and  on  June  8  the  cornerstone  of 
St.  Patrick's  was  laid  on  the  corner  of  Mott  and  Mulberry  streets,  but 
it  w  as  not  consecrated  till  1815.  In  181*7  Christ  Church  in  Ann  Street 
was  purchased,  and  rededicated  as  a  Catholic  Church.  About  this 
time  a  moderate  estimate  by  one  of  their  own  bishops  put  the  Catho- 
lic population  of  New  York  at  about  twenty-five  thousand.  Their 
great  number  was  mainly  composed  of  persons  who  had  emigrated 
from  Ireland.  But  there  were  enough  of  German  extraction  to  re- 
quire services  in  the  German  language,  though  the  prevailing  tongue 
was  the  English,  thus  keeping  the  church  as  a  whole  more  in  touch 
w  it  h  t  he  Americanizing  influences  around  it. 

New  York  takes  a  just  pride  in  her  public  school  system.  The 
history  of  education,  as  we  have  seen  all  along,  is  very  nearly  coter- 
minous with  the  history  of  the  city's  settlement  itself.  It  began  in 
1633.  In  1 748  t  wo  school  buildings  were  put  up,  one  in  Kector  Street 
by  Trinity  Church,  one  in  Garden  Street  (Exchange  Place)  by  the 
Dutch  Reformed  people.  And  thus  from  the  beginning  it  was  church 
and  school  that  went  hand  in  hand,  but  only  for  the  benefit  of  the 
families  of  the  church.  A  few  pupils  in  the  Dutch  school,  and  pos- 
sibly in  the  Episcopalian,  received  an  education  free  of  expense,  but 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  officers  of  the  church  paid  the  price  for  their  tuition  to  the  teach- 
ers. Since,  therefore,  secular  education  was  compelled  to  be  so 
closely  dependent  upon  religious  affiliation,  the  children  of  the  outly- 
ing "  masses  " — churchless  even  then,  as  it  seems — grew  up  without 
the  advantages  of  schooling.  As  the  historian  of  the  Public  School 
Society  remarks:  "  By  that  social  gravitation  which  seems  to  have  al- 
ways been  inseparable  from  compacted  communities,  the  metropolis 
was  not  exempt  from  the  characteristic  feature  of  a  substratum  of 
wretched,  ignorant,  and  friendless  children,  who,  even  though  they 
had  parents,  grew  up  in  a  condition  of  moi'al  and  religious  orphan- 
age, alike  fatal  to  their  temporal  and  spiritual  advancement  and  ele- 
vation." To  counteract  this  fearful  tendency  the  best  citizens  of  the 
town  felt  they  must  bestir  themselves.  The  initiatory  step  had  been 
taken  by  a  number  of  Quaker  ladies  of  means,  who,  by  their  own  con- 
tributions, had  organized  a  school  for  girls,  who  received  tuition  in 
the  common  branches,  entirely  without  cost  to  the  parents.  Early  in 
the  year  1805  two  gentlemen — their  names  deserve  mention  and  re- 
membrance— Thomas  Eddy  and  John  Murray,  issued  a  call  for  a  meet- 
ing at  Mr.  Murray's  house  in  Pearl  Street,  to  consider  the  subject  of 
providing  means  for  the  education  of  neglected  children.  The  meet- 
ing was  called  for  February  11),  1805,  and  on  that  date  twelve  gentle- 
men responded.  Some  of  the  names  have  already  become  familiar  to 
us  in  the  course  of  this  history;  they  were:  Samuel  Osgood,  Brock- 
hoist  Livingston,  Samuel  Miller,  Joseph  Constant,  Thomas  Pearsall, 
Thomas  Franklin,  Matthew  Clarkson,  Leonard  Bleecker,  Samuel  Rus- 
sell, and  William  Edgar.  At  a  second  meeting,  less  than  a  week  later, 
a  report  was  adopted  recommending  application  to  the  Legislature 
for  an  act  incorporating  an  educational  society.  A  memorial  having 
been  drawn  up,  it  was  signed  by  one  hundred  prominent  citizens,  and 
sent  to  the  Legislature  on  February  25.  On  April  9  it  passed  the 
bill  desired,  entitled  "  An  Act  to  incorporate  the  Society  instituted 
in  the  City  of  New  York  for  the  Establishment  of  a  Free  School  for 
the  Education  of  Poor  Children  who  do  not  belong  to,  or  are  not  pro- 
vided for  by,  any  religious  Society."  Thirty-seven  incorporating 
members  were  mentioned  in  the  bill,  the  name  of  Mayor  De  Witt  Clin- 
ton being  first.  De  WTitt  Clinton  and  the  twelve  gentlemen  present 
at  the  original  meeting  at  Mr.  Murray's  house  were  constituted  the 
trustees.  Of  this  board  the  Mayor  was  chosen  President;  John  Mur- 
ray, Vice-President;  Leonard  Bleecker,  Treasurer;  and  Benjamin  D. 
Perkins,  Secretary.  It  will  be  noticed  that  even  yet  the  whole  move- 
ment was  a  benevolent  one,  the  schools  to  be  established  being  really 
"  charity  schools,"  or  for  poor  children  only.  Hence  the  appeal  was  to 
private  generosity.  It  took  a  year  to  collect  sufficient  funds  even  to 
make  a  beginning.  Clinton  again  led  the  list  of  subscribers  (still  pre- 
served) with  a  donation  of  $200.  A  teacher  was  engaged  and  apart- 
ments rented,  William  Smith  being  the  pioneer  instructor,  and  the 


284 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


place  a  house  in  Madison  (then  Bancker)  Street.  On  May  19,  180G, 
exercises  were  begun;  few  children  were  present;  after  a  few  days 
there  were  forty-two.  Then  the  numbers  grew  so  rapidly  that  better 
accommodations  became  necessary.  In  April,  1S0G,  Colonel  Henry 
Kutgers  (after  whom  Rutgers  College  at  New  Brunswick,  ST.  J.,  is 
named,  by  reason  of  his  munificence  to  that  institution)  had  given  a 
lot  for  a  building  in  Ilenry  Street,  and  soon  gave  the  adjoining  lot 
also.  But  funds  were  scarce.  A  second  appeal  to  the  Legislature  re- 
sulted in  the  setting  apart  of  a  portion  of  the  excise  for  the  use  of  the 
Society.  The  city  corporation  presented  a  building  on  Chambers 
Street  adjoining  the  Almshouse,  besides  $.">00  to  put  it  into  a  state  of 
repair,  thus  furnishing  the  means  to  construct  rooms  for  classes  and 
also  living  apartments  for  the  teacher,  and  here  Mr.  Smith  began  his 
instructions  on  April  28, 1807.  In  1808  the  charter  was  altered  and  the 
Society's  title  changed  to  that  of  the  "  Free  School  Society  of  the  City 
of  New  York."  In  1809  the  school  next  to  the  Almshouse  became  too 
small,  and  now  was  erected  the  first  real  school  building  on  a  large 
lot  in  Chatham  Street  given  by  the  city.  On  December  11  it  was  dedi- 
cated. This  was  the  old  school  No.  1.  It 
was  was  not  long  before  No.  2  was  erected. 
Thirteen  thousand  dollars  had  been  raised 
by  the  citizens  to  meet  Colonel  Rutgers's 
condition  that  a  school  be  erected  on  the 
two  lots  in  Ilenry  Street  before  June.  1811. 
The  corner-stone  was  laid  in  November. 
1810,  by  the  Colonel  himself  in  the  presence 
of  a  large  audience.  In  1811  Trinity  Chun  li 
gave  two  lots  on  the  corner  of  Hudson  and 
Grove  streets,  whereupon  the  third  school 
was  elected,  and  where  to-day  still  stands 
one  of  the  ward  schools  of  the  city.  In  L825 
the  name  of  the  society  was  (  hanged  again, 
becoming  now  the  "  Public  School  Society." 
thus  eliminating  more  and  more  the  idea  of 
"  charity."  and  approaching  the  principle 
that  education  is  a  right  which  can  be 
claimed  from  the  State  by  every  citizen. 
Alter  a  while  the  special,  even  yet  some- 
what benevolent  and  certainly  private  association,  was  merged  into 
the  educational  system  of  the  State  on  the  broader  lines.  In  1828 
t  here  were  six  schools  in  active  operation  in  various  part s  of  the  city. 

The  commerce  of  the  city  suffered  a  hard  blow  from  the  premoni- 
tions of  the  War  of  1  SI as  already  intimated.  In  the  years  180."). 
1806,  and  L807  the  exports  booked  at  this  harbor  were  of  the  value  of 
$23,869,250  per  year  on  the  average.  From  this  there  was  a  great 
falling  oil'  during  the  years  1809,  L810,  and  L811,  the  three  immedi- 


KIKST  HOUSE  LIGHTED  HY 
GAS,  1825. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


285 


ately  preceding  the  declaration  of  war,  when  the  embargo  act  had 
been  put  into  force.  Then  the  average  exports  amounted  to  only  $14,- 
030,035.  In  the  year  1825,  ten  years  after  the  close  of  the  war,  tin- 
value  of  imports  reached  the  figure  $50,024,973,  and  the  exports  had 
risen  to  an  average  of  $20,000,000  during  the  three  years  1825,  1826, 
and  1827.  But  as  a  penalty  for  too  great  confidence  in  prosperity  the 
panic  of  1819  was  followed  by  another  in  1826.  The  banks  of  the  city 
had  nobly  borne  the  strain  of  war  and  the  crippling  of  business  by  the 
embargo.  The  capital  in  their  charge  in  1815  amounted  to  $13,515,- 
000.  In  the  matter  of  chartering  banks  politics  still  kept  meddling. 
W  hen  the  Legislature,  in  1812,  was  about  to  pass  an  act  chartering 
the  Bank  of  North  America,  which  would  possibly  benefit  or  be  con- 
ducted by  persons  of  an  opposite  party  to  that  of  Governor  Tomp- 
kins, the  latter  took  the  extreme  measure  of  proroguing  the  body, 
causing  intense  excitement.  On  reconvening  after  sixty  days  the 
charter  for  the  bank  was  promptly  passed.  "  For  this  result,"  ob- 
serves Mr.  Ellis  H.  Koberts,  "  De  Witt  Clinton  wras  in  large  degree 
responsible,  for  he  was  to  have  and  did  get  the  support  of  the  bank 
ring  in  his  candidacy  then  pending  for  President.  These  graspings 
for  bank  charters  as  political  prizes,  or  as  conditions  of  bargains  in 
politics,  continued  until  the  free  banking  law  wras  enacted,  allowing 
equal  privileges  to  all  under  statutory  regulations."  In  1819  the  first 
savings  bank  was  instituted.  Its  title  was  the  "  Bank  of  Savings  of 
the  City  of  New  York."  For  many  years  it  was  located  in  Bleecker 
Street,  east  of  Broadway,  and  within  a  year  or  two  has  moved  into  its 
present  beautiful  marble  home  on  the  corner  of  Fourth  Avenue  and 
Twenty-second  Street — a  happy  contrast  in  its  elegant  proportions 
to  the  unsightly  monsters  called  "  sky-scrapers  "  which  offend  the  eye 
by  their  excesses  in  height  and  disproportion  in  other  dimensions.  Of 
the  Mty  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  imports  brought  to  New  York  in 
1825,  forty-eight  millions  were  carried  in  American  vessels,  a  matter 
that  is  worth  pondering  in  these  days.  American  shipping  was  an 
industry  of  considerable  magnitude,  but  when  it  was  put  on  the  list 
of  "  infants  "  it  seems  to  have  grieved  and  died.  Shipyards  abounded 
then  along  the  East  River  shore,  of  which  the  largest  and  most  fa- 
mous were  that  of  the  Brown  Brothers  (Adam  and  Noah),  at  the  foot 
of  East  Houston  Street;  that  of  Christian  Bergh,  near  Gouverneur's 
Slip;  and  that  of  Henry  Eckford,  near  Bergh's.  In  1817  regular  packet 
lines  wrere  established  between  New  York  and  Liverpool.  The  "  Black 
Ball  Line  "  consisted  of  four  ships  of  about  five  hundred  tons,  which 
sailed  regularly  on  the  first  of  every  month,  but  business  was  so  good 
that  after  six  months  four  more  packets  were  added  to  the  fleet,  and 
the  vessels  left  for  Liverpool  twice  a  month,  on  the  1st  and  on  the 
16th.  The  "  Red  Star  Line  "  of  packets,  also  four  in  number,  made  the 
24th  of  each  month  their  sailing  day.  Messrs.  Fish,  Grinnell  &  Co. 
(we  want  to  note  that  second  name)  established  the  "  Swallow  Tail 


286 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Line  "  again  with  four  ships,  sailing  on  the  8th  of  every  month.  Thus 
citizens  of  wealth  and  leisure  had  a  chance  of  going  upon  the  grand 
tour  of  Europe  every  week  in  the  month. 

We  have  been  made  aware  by  more  than  one  circumstance  in  the 
city's  life  that  De  W  itt  Clinton  was  Mayor  at  various  times.  It  was 
an  office  of  such  importance  in  those  days  that  in  1803  Clinton  re- 
signed as  United  States  Senator  in  order  to  accept  it.  Yet  .Mayor 
John  Ferguson  did  the  reverse.  A  federalist  victory  in  1815  calling 
for  the  removal  of  Clinton,  he  was  appointed  to  the  office,  but  he  held 
the  position  of  naval  officer  of  the  customs.  Edward  Livingston  in 
1803  had  been  Mayor  and  United  States  District  Attorney  at  the  same 
time.  But  now  it  was  decided  by  the  courts  that  the  Mayor  could  not 
hold  a  federal  office  at  the  same  time,  and  Ferguson,  after  presiding 
over  the  affairs  of  the  citv  from  March  to  June,  resigned  the  chair  and 
clung  to  his  customs  duties.  Jacob  RadcMffe,  who  had  succeeded  Ma- 
rinus  YYillett  in  1808,  now  received  the  appointment,  and  held  it  for 
three  years.  An  interesting  personage  then  (1818)  came  forward,  the 
grandson  of  the  old  Lieutenant-Governor  and  stanch  unbending 
Tory,  Cadwallader  Colden.  He  was  the  son  of  David  Oolden, 
aud  his  name  combined  those  of  the  two  forefathers.  Cadwalla- 
der D.  Colden  must  have  inherited  some  of  the  scientific  tastes 
of  his  forbear,  for  at  the  Canal  Celebration  he  offered  a  treatise 
for  preservation  among  the  archives  of  the  occasion  on  the  sub- 
ject of  canals  and  inland  navigation  in  general.  In  L821  he  was 
succeeded  by  .Mr.  Stephen  Allen,  a  self-made  man  beginning  life  as  a 
sailmaker,  and  later  acquiring  great  wealth  in  mercantile  and  finan- 
cial undertakings  by  the  sheer  force  of  a  remarkable  intellect.  He 
became  Slate  Senator  later,  and  served  with  distinction  as  a  member 
of  the  Court  of  Errors,  where  he  dealt  in  a  masterly  way  with  the 
most  subtle  questions  of  law.  although  quite  without  legal  training. 
Dining  his  term,  in  Isl'l'.  there  occurred  a  considerable  modification 
of  t  he  City  <  'hat  ter.  Only  one  st  net  ly  appointive  office  now  remained, 
thai  of  the  Recorder;  the  Sheriff  and  the <  Jlerk  of  the  Com m on  Coun- 
cil were  made  elective  by  the  citizens,  while  the  .Mayor  was  to  be 
elected  by  t he  Council.  This  change  of  method  was  the  result  of  the 
abolition  of  the  Council  of  Appointment  by  the  State  Constitution  of 
1822.  which  gave  part  of  its  functions  to  the  Coventor  and  Senate. 
Mayor  William  Paulding  was  the  lirst  to  be  appointed  under  the  new 
rule.  He  was  a  nephew  of  one  of  t  hose  "  i n corrupt  ible  patriots  '*  who 
declined  Andre's  bribe  when  they  arrested  him  with  Arnold's  papers 
on  his  person.  He  was  born  at  Tarry  town,  the  scene  of  John  Paul- 
ding's exploit,  came  to  New  York  in  170.").  and  engaged  in  the  practice 
of  law.  hi  1825  Philip  Hone,  the  celebrated  and  wealthy  auctioneer, 
became  Mayor,  holding  the  place  for  one  year,  when  Paulding  was 
re-appointed,  and  held  it  again  for  two  years.  Among  tin1  fortunate 
happenings  in  De  Witl  Clinton's  life  must  be  reckoned  t  hat  during  his 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


2S7 


incumbency  of  the  .Mayor's  office  occurred  the  completion  of  our  pics 
<>nt  City  Hall.  It  is  a  well-founded  boast  that  there  is  no  finer  public 
edifice  iu  the  United  States,  for  the  grace  of  its  outline,  and  f  or  adapt- 
edness  to  its  uses.  A  premium  had  been  offered  for  the  best  plan, 
which  was  awarded  to  .Messrs.  Macomb  and  Mangin.  The  front  and 
sides  are  of  Stockbridge  marble,  the  roar  until  recently  showed  a  red 
sandstone  surface,  but  it  has  been  veined  and  whitened  to  look  like 
marble,  it  cost  $500,000.  The  pity  of  it  is  that  the  characterless 
monstrosities  which  men  are  putting  up  in  these  days  for  newspaper 
or  business  purposes,  and  which  invade  the  sky  with  tine  disregard  for 
architectural  principles  or  proportions,  completely  destroy  the  pleas- 
ing and  noble  effect  of  this  building.  An  event  in  municipal  affairs 
was  the  first  introduction  of  gas  for  use  in  streets  and  houses  in  the 


CITY  HALL  IN  THE  PARK,  18l2. 


year  L825.  The  company  furnishing  it  had  been  incorporated  two 
years  before,  but  not  till  May  of  1825  did  they  begin  to  lay  the  pipes. 
A  line  of  lamps  was  placed  on  both  sides  of  Broadway,  from  Canal 
Street  to  the  Battery.  The  first  company  chartered  was  the  New 
York  Gaslight  Company,  and  its  field  was  assigned  to  it  south  of 
Canal  Street.  In  1830  the  Manhattan  Gas  Company  was  incorpor- 
ated, and  took  care  of  the  upper  parts  of  the  city.  No.  7  Cherry  Street, 
the  home  of  Mr.  Samuel  Leggett,  President  of  the  New  York  Gaslight 
Company,  was  the  first  private  residence  to  be  lighted  with  the  new 
illuminator. 

In  1809  the  second  centennial  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  the 
Hudson  was  celebrated  by  the  Historical  Society.    They  had  no  hall 


288 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  their  own  as  yet .  but  occupied  rooms  in  the  <  rovernment  I  louse  on 
the  silo  of  The  old  fort,  which  was  im\v  the  Custom  House.  The  exec- 
rises  were  held  in  the  Court  Room  of  the  ( 'ity  Hall  on  Wall  Street,  on 
September  4.  Governor  Tompkins,  .Mayor  Clinton,  the  City  Corpora- 
tion, and  a  number  of  other  distinguished  guests  being  present.  An 
address  was  delivered,  able,  and  interesting.  The  company  next  re- 
paired to  the  City  Hotel  on  Broadway,  where  a  banquet  was  spread, 
the  dishes  being-  mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  American,  of  an  ancient 
and  homely  kind,  including  succotash  and  some  other  Indian  delica- 
cies. A  great  number  of  toasts  were  given,  Verrazano  being  remem- 
bered, but  not  Gomez.  Another  omission  was  Peter  Minuit,  which 
was  emphasized  by  the  erroneous  sentiment:  "Walter  van  Twiller. 
the  first  Governor  of  Xew  Netherland."  Engineer  Simeon  De  Witt 
gave  a  toast  worth  keeping  in  mind  by  a  generation  soon  to  take 
their  place  in  the  world's  activities:  "  May  our  successors  a  century 
hence  celebrate  the  same  event  which  we  this  day  commemorate." 

It  is  certainly  a  coincidence  that  the  year  180(J,  two  hundred  years 
after  the  discovery  of  the  site  of  our  city,  should  have  been  signalized 
by  the  publication  of  Washington  Irving's  immortal  burlesque  his- 
tory of  that  city,  ascribed  to  the  pen  of  the  worthy  Diedrich  Knick- 
erbocker. It  was  this  book,  while  setting  all  the  world  a-laughing. 
which  turned  the  attention  of  the  citizens  to  the  origins  of  their  own 
town,  of  which  they  were  almost  totally  ignorant.  Irving  was  aston- 
ished to  discover  how  few  even  knew  that  Xew  York  had  ever  been 
called  Xew  Amsterdam.  The  book  was  published  in  November,  so 
that  the  Historical  Society's  celebration  cannot  have  been  the  result 
of  the  interest  awakened  by  its  perusal.  Yet  it  is  curious  to  observe 
that  both  they,  by  their  toasts,  and  the  author,  by  his  annals,  dis- 
cover no  acquaintance  with  any  Director  of  New  Netherland  before 
van  Twiller.  This  was  because  their  only  source  of  information  then 
was  William  Smith's  history.  The  burlesque  was  not  altogether  rel- 
ished, especially  not  by  descendants  of  the  Dutch,  who  at  that  time 
occupied  high  social  position.  But  pretty  soon  the  royal  tun  of  the 
book  triumphed  over  everything  else.  Long  afterward  Irving  wrote 
about  the  work:  "  If  it  has  taken  an  unwarrantable  liberty  with  our 
early  provincial  history,  it  has  at  least  turned  attention  to  that  his 
tory  and  provoked  research.''  It  is  perfectly  true  that  from  that  day 
to  this,  as  a  result  of  the  amusement  or  the  indignation  which  the 
book  has  awakened  in  different  minds.  "  the  forgotten  archives  of  the 
province  have  been  rummaged,  and  the  facts  and  personages  of  the 
olden  time  rescued  from  the  dust  of  oblivion."  But  what  is  especially 
significant  is  the  effect  the  book  has  had  upon  nomenclature  in  the 
city.  In  fact  the  name  of  its  supposed  author  has  been  appropriated 
as  a  convenient  soubriquet.  Even  as  the  United  States  has  its  Uncle 
Jonathan,  so  New  York  City  has  its  Father  Knickerbocker  to  typify 
it.  and    in   raillery   or  caricature   to   picture   forth   the  image  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


289 


the  city.  We  may  be  inclined  to  scold  at  times,  and  with  James  Rus- 
sell Lowell  or  James  Graham  deplore  that  forefathers  of  such  excel- 
lent brains  and  world-famous  achievements  should  have  been  so  sadly 
robbed  of  their  good  name,  being  held  up  to  ridicule  as  misshapen  in 
body,  and  hopelessly  stupid;  yet  do  we  agree  with  Irving's  own  con- 
clusion when  he  says:  "  W  hen  I  find,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  forty 
years,  this  haphazard  production  of  my  youth  still  cherished  among 
them,  when  I  hud  its  very  name  a  '  household  word/  and  used  to  give 
the  home  stamp  to  everything  recommended  for  popular  acceptation, 
such  as  Knickerbocker  societies,  Knickerbocker  insurance  companies, 
Knickerbocker  steamboats,  Knickerbocker  omnibuses,  Knicker- 
bocker bread,  and  Knickerbocker  ice,  and  when  I  find  New  Yorkers 
of  Dutch  descent  priding  themselves  upon  being  '  genuine  Knicker- 
bockers,' I  please  myself  with  the  persuasion  that  I  have  struck  the 
right  chord  .  .  .  that  I  have  opened  a  vein  of  pleasant  associa- 
tions and  quaint  characteristics  peculiar  to  my  native  place,  and 
which  its  inhabitants  will  not  willingly  suffer  to  pass  away." 

The  year  1809  was  again  made  memorable  by  the  death  in  this  city 
of  the  famous  or  notorious  Thomas  Paine,  as  people  may  choose  to 
call  him.  He  had  been  a  sincere  friend  of  America,  and  his  "  Rights 
of  Man  "  had  roused  the  world  to  a  sense  of  what  was  due  to  the  peo- 
ple in  the  matter  of  government.  He  had  been  rescued  from  the 
fickle  guillotine,  which  decapitated  friends  and  foes  of  human  liberty 
as  the  whim  took  it,  by  the  earnest  intercession  of  the  United  States, 
through  Gouverneur  Morris,  then  its  representative  in  Paris.  About 
the  year  1801  he  came  to  this  country,  while  his  friend  and  admirer 
(and  perhaps  disciple),  Jefferson,  wTas  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Repub- 
lic. Grant  Thorburn,  the  seedsman,  called  upon  him  at  the  City  Hotel 
soon  after  his  arrival,  to  satisfy  a  curiosity  he  had  to  see  the  much- 
talked-of  man,  and  in  spite  of  his  horror  of  atheism,  was  led  in  a  mo- 
ment of  human  sympathy  to  grasp  his  proffered  hand.  But  the 
worthy  Grant  was  precentor  and  clerk  in  the  Scotch  Presbyterian 
Church  on  Cedar  Street,  where  no  profane  artificial  musical  instru- 
ment was  permitted  to  assist  the  congregation  in  singing  the  Psalms 
of  David.  For  this  act  of  friendliness  toward  an  infidel  he  was  sus- 
pended from  office  for  three  months.  When  Paine's  health  began  to 
fail  he  was  taken  out  into  the  country  in  Greenwich  Village,  and  lived 
in  a  house  midway  between  Grove  and  Barrow  in  Bleecker  Street, 
until  May  29, 1809.  He  was  then  removed  for  greater  privacy  or  com- 
fort (the  other  was  a  boarding-house)  to  a  house  in  Grove  Street,  half- 
way between  Bleecker  (then  Herring)  Street  and  Fourth,  about  where 
No.  59  would  now  be.  Here  he  died  on  June  8, 1809. 

Some  mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  succession  of  severe 
winters  in  1817-18  and  1820-21.  In  the  former  winter  persons  crossed 
over  from  Flushing  to  Riker's  Island  with  a  horse  and  sleigh.  In  the 
latter  the  Long  Island  Sound  was  crossed  from  Sand's  Point  to  the 


290 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


opposite  shore,  eight  miles  distil ut.  The  Bay  and  both  rivers  were 
solid  surfaces  of  ice,  upon  which  people  disported  on  skates  and  with 
horses  and  sleighs  as  if  they  were  on  terra  fir  ma.  Ten  Is  were  put  up 
for  serving  refreshments,  roasted  clams,  oysters,  hot  milk,  or  stronger 
liquors.  An  attempt  was  made  to  roast  a  whole  ox,  but  the  fires  were 
too  much  even  for  the  thickness  of  the  ice  that  then  prevailed.  A  sad 
feature  of  these  hard  winters  was  the  suffering  among  the  poor;  fuel 
and  provisions  rose  to  very  high  figures  for  that  time.  Best  beef  at 
12  1-2  cents,  veal  at  10  cents  per  pound,  potatoes.  5)5  cents  per  barrel, 
would  not  be  deemed  oppressive  to-day,  but  it  was  too  much  for  the 
incomes  or  wages  of  those  times,  and  the  benevolent  needed  to  exert 
themselves  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  indigent. 

In  the  way  of  theatrical  entertainments  the  city  had  been  getting 
upon  a  higher  level  with  its  increasing  wealth.  On  January  29,  1798, 
the  Park  Theater  had  been  opened.  It  was  erected  on  Park  Row, 
between  Ann  and  Beekman  streets,  which  was  somewhat  out  of  the 
way,  but  no  more  so  than  St.  Paul's  and  the  Brick  Presbyterian 
churches  in  its  vicinity.  The  prejudice  against  the  theater  was  grad- 
ually lessening.  It  had  been  made  a  complaint  against  Washington 
that  he  had  too  frequently  attended  the  old  playhouse  in  John  Street. 
The  Park  Theater  began  to  present  to  Xew  York  audiences  such 
names  as  those  of  Kean  and  Booth,  and  Wallack  and  Matthews.  If 
we  examine  the  list  of  plays  that  were  here  given  at  successive  sea- 
sons, it  is  interesting  to  note  how  frequently  recur  Sheridan's  plays 
("  School  for  Scandal,"  "  The  Rivals  ").  and  Goldsmith's  "  She  Stoops 
to  Conquer,"  while  Shakespeare's  dramas  are  comparatively  rare. 
On  May  25,  1820,  the  Park  Theater  was  completely  destroyed  by  ti'  < 
But  it  had  a  neighbor  living  within  sight  of  it,  on  the  cornel-  of  Vesey 
Street  and  Broadway,  where  the  Astor  House  now  stands,  who  had 
an  intense  love  of  the  drama,  so  that  he  was  known  as  "Theater 
•lack."  and  he  had  a  very  long  purse.  This  was  John  Jacob  Astor. 
He  and  a  Mr.  Beekman  furnished  the  necessary  funds  for  rebuilding, 
and  it  was  soon  ready  again  for  business,  but  the  yellow  fever  put  it 
out  of  people's  hearts  to  be  amused,  and  the  plays  languished  for  a 
while.  In  1825  the  patrons  were  first  treated  to  Italian  Opera,  when 
Signorina  Garcia,  later  better  known  as  Madame  Malibran,  sang  in 
"  II  Barbieredi  Seviglia."  She  was  1  hen  but  seventeen  years  old. 

Meantime  emigration,  sudden  acquisition  of  wealth  by  people  of 
all  classes,  the  growing  obliteration  of  class  distinctions  with  the  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage,  and  the  lifting  to  high  positions  by  votes  of 
the  populace  those  who  had  never  dared  aspire  to  w  alk  on  planes  so 
elevated,  were  having  their  effects  upon  the  social  conditions  of  Hip 
city.  As  Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt  justly  observes:  "  With  the  close  of 
the  war.  the  beginning  of  immigration  on  a  vast  scale,  and  the  adop- 
tion of  a  more  radically  democratic  State  Constitution,  the  history  of 
old  New  York  may  be  said  to  have  come  to  an  end.  and  thai  of  the 


292 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


modern  city,  with  its  totally  different  conditions,  to  have  begun."  It 
was  a  period  of  transition.  Old  New  York  was  gone,  the  later  Ne» 
York  had  not  yet  come,  for,  as  he  remarks  again:  "  There  was  still  no 
widespread  and  grinding  poverty,  and  there  were  no  colossal  fortunes. 
The  conditions  of  civic  or  municipal  life  then  were  in  no  way  akin  to 
what  they  are  now,  and  none  of  the  tremendous  problems  with  which 
we  must  now  grapple  had  at  that  time  arisen."  For  one  thing,  the 
population  was  not  yet  so  enormous,  nor  yet  so  heterogeneous.  In 
1810  New  York  had  nearly  reached  the  100.000  mark;  in  1820  the  pop- 
ulation was  123,706;  in  1825, 166,086.  She  had  passed  the  other  great 
cities  beyond  all  catching  up.  In  1820  Boston  numbered  23.000.  and 
Baltimore  63,000.  Philadelphia  in  1810  was  about  equal  to  New 
York;  in  1820  it  had  only  108,000. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


BECOMING  THE  COMMERCIAL  CAPITAL. 

t 

N  1825  New  York  was  already  the  leading  city  in  population 
of  that  Union  of  which  it  had  once  been  the  civil  capital. 
It  was  approaching  more  and  more  the  character  of  the  city 
after  which  it  was  originally  named,  and  the  impress  of 
whose  genius  was  early  stamped  upon  it.  Amsterdam  had  never 
been  the  capital  of  the  Dutch  Eepublic  as  a  seat  of  its  government. 
Even  the  Provincial  Legislature  had  made  The  Hague  its  capital,  as  it 
was  also  the  capital  of  the  States-General  or  Congress  of  all  the 
United  Netherlands.  But  from  very  early  times  Amsterdam  had  been 
the  metropolis  of  Holland,  the  queen  of  its  commerce,  and  it  is  so  at 
this  day.  It  is  an  interesting  coincidence  that  while  New  York  had 
now  assumed  the  precise  character  of  Amsterdam,  it  also  approached 
it  in  the  number  of  its  inhabitants.  In  1827  our  city  passed  the  two 
hundred  thousand  mark,  and  that  was  about  the  population  of  the 
Dutch  metropolis  then.  Its  utmost  number  now  is  not  more  than 
four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  a  figure  that  was  reached  by  her  for- 
mer namesake  about  the  year  1845. 

Taking  our  stand  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  at  the  end  of 
which  New  York  will  rank  as  the  second  city  in  the  world  for  size  and 
population,  it  is  instructive  to  make  a  comparison  between  it  and 
other  great  cities  of  the  world  as  exhibiting  the  rapidity  wherewith 
our  city  has  attained  its  conspicuous  position.  In  1801  there  was 
probably  as  vast  a  collection  of  people  in  Pekin  as  now;  certainly  it 
must  have  had  its  millions.  But  its  origin  is  lost  in  the  impenetrable 
distance  of  China's  past  history.  Paris  was  a  city  immensely  more 
populous  than  little  New  York  with  its  sixty  thousand  souls.  But 
Paris  was  so  delectable  a  city  in  the  years  355  to  361  A.D.,  that  the 
Emperor  Julian  the  Apostate  loved  it  as  his  favorite  residence  above 
any  place  in  the  Roman  dominions.  Berlin,  now  with  its  million  and 
more,  was  then  an  important  place,  one  of  the  chief  cities  of  Europe. 
It  had  been  a  capital  since  1163.  Amsterdam  in  the  first  year  of  this 
century  greatly  outnumbered  as  yet  its  municipal  god-daughter.  But 
it  had  had  the  chance  of  growing  to  its  then  superior  proportions  dur- 
ing nearly  six  centuries,  having  been  founded  in  1203.  Finally.  Lon- 
don, to  which  alone  New  York  is  now  second,  was  already  great  in 
1801.   It  covered  forty  square  miles  of  territory,  and  contained  a  pop- 


294 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


ulatioD  of  nearly  nine  hundred  thousand  souls.  But  it  had  a  history 
counting  by  eighteen  centuries,  going  back  of  the  birth  of  Christ. 
Here  was  this  little  city  <>n  a  mere  point  of  -Manhattan  Island,  and 
still  within  eight  years  of  celebrating  the  second  centennial  of  .he  dis- 
covery of  her  very  site,  yet  destined  to  outstrip  all  but  one  of  these 
ancient  municipalities  and  capitals,  and  to  come  dangerously  near 
that  one  also  before  she  and  they  would  be  anol  her  century  old. 

The  most  notable  circumstance  in  the  city's  history  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  period  we  are  now  considering  is  the  stimulus  to  commer- 
cial activity  derived  from  the  opening  and  the  operation  of  the  Erie 
and  Champlain  canals,  and  the  facilities  for  communication  afforded 
by  steamboats.  Some  idea  of  the  amount  of  business  done  on  these 
canals  may  be  gained  from  the  statement  that  the  tolls  collected  on 
imports  conveyed  to  New  York  by  means  of  their  waters  amounted  In 
1820  to  |762,000,  and  in  1827  to  $859,000.  These  brought  to  the  em- 
porium at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  the  natural  and  only  out  let  to  the 
marts  of  the  world,  all  that  agricultural,  manufacturing,  or  mining 
enterprise  was  doing  in  the  States  and  Territories  bordering  on  the 
immense  inland  seas.  While  the  many  steamship  lines  plying  now 
between  towns  all  along  the  Hudson  as  far  as  Albany,  and  our  city; 
as  well  as  those  connecting  with  New  Brunswick  and  other  towns 
in  New  Jersey,  and  with  the  manufacturing  centers  of  the  New 
England  States  by  means  of  the  convenient,  practically  inland 
navigation  of  the  Sound;  kept  on  pouring  the  products  of  the  soil, 
and  of  skillful  human  hands,  increasingly  into  the  markets  and 
shops  and  shipping  of  New  York.  It  was  thus  rapidly  advanc- 
ing to  its  present  unrivaled  position  as  the  queen  not  only  of 
the  commerce  of  the  Union,  but  indeed  of  t  hat  of  1  he  entire  Western 
Hemisphere.  Nature's  purpose,  manifested  in  the  wonderful  ad- 
vantages accumulated  so  lavishly  in  and  around  the  city,  w  as  getting 
its  fulfillment  beyond  the  wildest  dreams  that  men  had  ever  dared 
to  indulge. 

The  year  ISL'T  should  be  remembered  and  honored  as  a  "  red  let  ter  " 
year  in  the  history  of  t  he  State,  as  it  caused  to  disappear  forever  from 
the  purlieus  of  the  city  the  blot  upon  liberty  which  had  aroused  the 
scorn  of  nations  less  free  than  we  were.  In  this  year  vanished  forever 
the  last  vestiges  of  negro  slavery.  The  abolition  of  this  evil  and  this 
scandal,  long  prepared  for  in  our  State,  came  to  its  consummation 
then.  It  is  both  curious  and  sad  to  see  how  the  friends  of  a  cause 
may  sometimes  Inflict  upon  it  the  greatesl  harm.  It  should  not  at 
this  late  date  especially  be  forgotten  that  measures  to  check  the  evil 
Of  Slavery,  and  the  denunciations  of  it  as  an  evil,  came  tirst  from  men 
of  Virginia.  Josiah  Parker,  Theodoric  Bland,  and  dames  Madison 
all  supported  a  bill  in  Congress  imposing  a  duty  of  ten  dollars  on 
every  slave  imported.    Parker's  words  were  that  he  hoped  Congress 

"  would  do  all  in  their  power  to  restore  to  human  nature  its  ancient 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


privileges;  to  wipe  off  if  possible  The  stigma  under  which  America 
labored;  to  do  away  with  the  inconsistency  in  our  principles  justly 
charged  upon  us.  aud  to  show  by  our  actions  the  pure]-  beneficence  of 
the  doctrine  held  out  to  the  world  in  our  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence." It  is  the  opinion  of  so  good  an  authority  as  Moncure  D.  Con- 
way that  "  had  the  ten  dollars'  import  duty  on  negroes  been  adopted. 
American  history  might  have  been  less  tragical.''  But  what  defeated 
the  measure?  The  strenuous  opposition  of  two  very  strong  anti-slav- 
ery advocates  from  New  England.  One,  Roger  Sherman,  of  Connec- 
ticut, could  not  get  himself  to  consent  "  tri  the  insertion  of  human 
beings  as  a  subject  of  import  among  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise." 
This  was  mere  sentimental  ism,  as  it  was  already  the  fact  that  they 
were  so  regarded,  and  a  heavy  duty  might  have  so  discouraged  the 
practice  as  to  have 
taken  them  eventu- 
ally out  of  that  cate- 
gory, sparing  a  traffic 
continued  for  another 
half  dozen  decades, 
and  the  expenditure 
of  the  blood  and  lives 
of  a  million  citizens  in 
the  end.  Fisher  Ames 
advanced  the  objec- 
tion of  the  modern 
Prohibitionist  w  h  o 
would  rather  let  a 
gigantic  evil  go  prac- 
tically unmolested, 
unrestricted,  or  un- 
punished by  an  enor- 
mous pecuniary  fine, 
than  by  a  license  be  supposed  to  consider  it  a  legitimate  business.  He 
"  detested  slavery  from  his  soul,  but  had  some  doubts  whether  im- 
posing a  duty  on  such  importation  would  not  have  an  appearance  of 
countenancing  the  practice."  The  duty  might  have  put  it  out  of  all 
countenance  or  existence  before  cotton  became  king.  After  that  en- 
thronement, together  with  the  apotheosis  of  the  dollar,  slaves  could 
not  be  taxed  out  of  existence  any  longer.  Only  blood  could  then  wipe 
out  the  stain. 

It  is  pleasant  to  bring  forward  once  more  the  name  of  that  noblest 
of  New  York's  sons.  John  Jay.  in  connection  with  the  action  of  our 
State  upon  this  matter.  Among  the  most  honorable  titles  by  which 
he  was  known  at  the  French  capital  was  that  of  "  ami  des  noirs,"  friend 
of  the  blacks.  Under  his  active  stimulus  a  society  was  organized  in 
New  York  for  the  "  Manumission  of  Slaves."  as  early  as  1785.  Jay 


JOHN  JAY'S  HOUSE  AT  BEDFORD. 


296 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


was,  of  course,  elected  president;  Jolm  Murray,  who  led  iu  the  school 
movement  in  1805,  was  its  treasurer.  Its  first  quarterly  meeting  w  as 
held  on  May  12,  at  the  famous  Tontine  Coffee  House  in  Wall  Street. 
The  progress  the-  society  made  in  disseminating  its  ideas  may  be 
judged  from  a  letter  Jay  wrote  to  an  English  sympathizer  iu  1788: 
"By  the  laws  of  this  State,"  he  said,  "masters  may  now  liberate 
healthy  slaves  of  a  proper  age  without  giving  security  that  they  shall 
not  become  a  parish  charge,  and  the  exportation  as  well  as  importa- 
tion of  them  is  prohibited.  The  State  has  also  manumitted  such  as 
became  its  property  by  confiscation;  and  we  have  reason  to  expect 
that  the  maxim  that  every  man,  of  whatever  color,  is  to  be  presumed 
to  be  free,  until  the  contrary  be  shown,  will  prevail  in  our  courts  of 
justice.  Manumission  daily  becomes  more  common  among  us.  and 
the  treatment  which  slaves  in  general  meet  with  in  this  State  is  very 
little  different  from  that  of  other  servants."  It  was  again  at  the  in- 
stance of  Jay,  when  he  was  Governor  of  the  State,  that  a  bill  was 
introduced  by  a  near  friend  of  his,  in  January,  1796.  calling  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  It  was  killed  in  committee,  a  tie  vote  there  hav- 
ing drawn  the  chairman's  casting  vote  against  it.  The  cause  could 
afford  to  wait,  and  its  patience,  as  well  as  perseverance,  was  rewarded 
by  success  three  years  later.  In  April,  1799,  a  bill  abolishing  slavery 
in  the  State  of  New  York  passed  the  Legislature  and  was  not  slow  in 
receiving  the  signature  of  Governor  Jay.  It  provided  that  all  chil- 
dren born  after  July  4,  1799,  should  be  free,  but  they  must  serve  an 
apprenticeship  in  the  families  to  which  they  belonged  until  they 
were  twenty-eight  years  old,  if  males,  and  twenty-five,  if  females;  and 
in  the  mean  time  the  earlier  provision  was  again  emphasized  that 
no  slaves  should  be  exported  from  the  State.  This  would  have  placed 
beyond  all  legal  restraints  on  the  part  of  owners  or  employers  the 
male  children  born  in  1799  in  the  year  1827,  and  females  in  1824,  while 
those  born  in  successive  years  thereafter  might  still  have  borne  the 
species  of  mild  thraldom  which  was  wont  to  hold  apprentices.  But 
all  became  free  in  1S27.  Daniel  1).  Tompkins,  Governor  of  the  State 
in  1817.  recommended  to  the  Legislature  that  it  empower  him  to 
make  a  declaration  of  emancipation  for  the  State.  The  Legislature 
adopted  the  suggestion,  and  passed  a  bill  giving  the  Governor  the 
power  to  declare  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  New  York  should  be  free 
on  and  after  July  4,  1827.  It  is  gratifying  to  reflect  that  the  negro's 
life-long  and  industrious  friend.  ex-Governor  John  Jay.  was  then  still 
living.  lie  had  retired  from  active  politics  at  the  expiration  of  his 
second  term  as  Governor  in  1800.  Some  time  before  that  he  had 
caused  to  be  built  a  comfortable  country  house  at  Bedford,  on  some 
of  the  van  Cortlandt  property  inherited  through  his  mother,  near  the 
banks  of  the  Bronx  River,  some  miles  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Greater 
New  York.  Here,  unhappily,  Mrs.  Jay  died  after  a  residence  of  only  a 
few  months,  in  1801.    But  Jay  himself  was  spared  for  many  a  year  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


297 


peaceful  life  until  1829,  when  be  died  at  the  age  of  83.  Not  among 
the  least  of  the  satisfactions  which  were  permitted  to  crown  so  noble 
and  useful  a  career  must  hare  been  the  declaration  proclaiming  free- 
dom to  slaves  in  1817,  when  he  was  already  old,  and  finally  to  survive 
till  that  happy  day  arrived,  in  1827,  when  the  glorious  Fourth  was 
celebrated  in  New  York  by  a  deed  than  which  none  could  have  been 
more  fitting — the  abolition  of  slavery  within  the  borders  of  the  State. 

There  were  a  succession  of  semi-centennials  coming  on  about  this 
period,  just  as  in  our  day  the  atmosphere  has  been  kept  charged  with 
patriotic  electricity  by  centennials  of  the  same  historic  occasions. 
The  semi-centennial  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  cele- 
brated with  especial  eclat  in  1826.  Great  preparations  had  been  made 
for  it  everywhere,  and  New  York  was  festive  and  brilliant  in  patriotic 
colors,  with  dinners  and  toasts  and  parades  galore.  The  whole  coun- 
try was  rejoicing  in  the  remarkable  circumstance  that  the  author  of 
the  Declaration,  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  another  member  of  the  com- 
mittee appointed  to  draft  it,  John  Adams,  were  still  living.  New 
York  had  its  own  John  Jay  still  with  it,  who  had  been  a  member  with 
Adams  of  the  Congress  of  1774;  but  Jay's  health  and  the  infirmities 
of  age  would  not  permit  him  to  be  a  participator  in  any  of  the  public 
exercises.  A  day  or  two  later  and  the  country  became  aware  of  a 
more  remarkable  circumstance  still.  Both  Jefferson  and  Adams  had 
died  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Declaration.  Jefferson  passed 
away  at  his  home  in  Virginia  at  fifty  minutes  past  noon,  and  Adams 
at  his  home  in  Massachusetts  late  that  same  afternoon.  Almost  his 
last  words  were  "  Jefferson  survives,"  but  we  know  now  he  did  not. 
Adams  had  not  quite  attained  his  ninety-first  birthday,  Jefferson  had 
passed  his  eighty-third.  Adams  was  only  three  years  and  a  half 
younger  than  Washington.  Had  the  latter  lived  till  this  auspicious 
day  he  would  have  been  ninety -three.  In  1832  the  centennial  of  his 
birthday  was  celebrated  with  special  honors  in  New  York,  the  whole 
of  the  militia  and  the  military  stationed  near  marching  in  a  grand 
parade.  And  two  years  later,  in  1831,  similar  honors  were  paid  to 
AYashington's  friend — the  highest  title  he  coveted,  and  cherished  be- 
yond all  insignia  of  nobility — Lafayette,  who  died  on  May  20  of  that 
year.  On  June  26,  by  order  of  the  Common  Council,  all  the  city  build- 
ings were  draped  in  mourning,  and  many  private  residences  showed  a 
similar  respect.  A  procession,  civil  and  military,  marched  from  the 
City  Hall  to  Castle  Garden,  carrying  in  state  the  urn  which  had 
served  the  same  purpose  at  the  funeral  exercises  in  honor  of  Washing- 
ton in  1799.  At  Castle  Garden  an  oration  was  delivered  on  the  life  of 
the  illustrious  dead;  after  which,  in  the  evening,  a  torchlight  proces- 
sion was  organized  again  carrying  the  urn  in  its  midst  . 

The  yellow  fever  had  made  its  last  visit  as  a  generally  exterminat- 
ing scourge  in  1822  and  1823.  The  quarantine  arrangements  then  in- 
stituted, directed  chiefly  against  the  West  Indian  and  South  Ameri- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


2<)<) 


can  ports,  as  well  as  the  ports  of  States  of  our  own  Union  bordering 
on  the  Mexican  Gulf,  had  succeeded  in  keeping  the  fearful  disease 
from  our  shores  since.  But  the  limited  experience  of  our  quarantine 
service  was  not  proof  against  a  visitor  equally  insidious  and  fatal, 
coming  from  a  totally  different  direction.  This  was  the  Asiatic  Chol- 
era, which  paid  its  first  unhappy  visit  to  our  city  in  the  year  1832.  It 
is  still  remembered  where  it  made  its  first  appearance,  a  house  in 
Cherry  Street,  near  James,  and  the  fateful  date  was  June  25. 
The  next  week  the  alarm  had  become  universal,  and  the  exodus 
toward  the  open  portions  of  the  island  began  again,  as  it  had 
been  ten  years  before.  A  special  council  composed  of  the  most  emi- 
nent members  of  the  medical  profession  was  appointed  to  deal  spe- 
cially with  the  disease,  and  to  organize  precautionary  measures.  Pour 
or  five  hospitals  were  improvised,  where  patients  could  be  treated 
with  greater  convenience  and  better  effect  than  in  their  own  homes, 
so  that  of  the  two  thousand  persons  cared  for  only  eight  hundred  and 
fifty  died.  The  scourge  lasted  from  June  25  to  September  1,  when  a 
fortunate  early  frost  destroyed  the  disease  germs  floating  in  the  air. 
The  date  July  21  is  marked  as  indicating  the  height  of  the  infliction, 
the  greatest  number  of  cases  having  been  reported,  and  the  greatest 
number  of  deaths  also  occurring  on  that  one  day.  The  total  number 
of  cases  throughout  the  whole  alarming  period  was  set  down  at  5,835, 
of  which  nearly  three  thousand  resulted  fatally.  It  did  not  seem  so 
easy  to  cope  with  this  epidemic  as  with  the  yellow  fever  at  quaran- 
tine, for  while  the  latter  had  been  successfully  barred  out,  the  Asiatic 
Cholera  defied  its  watchfulness  several  times  since  this  the  first  ap- 
pearance. Two  years  later  it  was  again  in  the  city,  although  not 
claiming  many  victims.  But  in  1849  it  came  back  with  greater  Vio- 
lence than  ever,  and  in  1855  it  repeated  its  ravages.  It  was  supposed 
to  keep  its  germs  in  reserve  within  the  city  and  to  develop  them  under 
the  favorable  conditions  that  so  often  prevailed  in  those  days  of  primi- 
tive sanitary  provisions.  Hence  quarantine  was  at  a  decided  disad- 
vantage at  its  outpost  by  the  sea. 

In  every  century  of  its  brief  existence  the  fire  fiend  has  found  occa- 
sion to  sweep  desolation  over  the  city  on  Manhattan  Island.  In  the 
document  that  affords  us  the  first  intimate  glimpse  into  the  internal 
and  everyday  affairs  of  the  colony,  describing  things  as  they  were  in 
1628,  Ave  already  read  of  a  fire  that  had  carried  away  several  of  the 
frail  huts,  with  their  sides  of  bark  and  roofs  of  straw.  When  a  better 
and  more  prosperous  condition  was  realized,  the  people  by  the  strange 
custom  of  having  wooden  chimneys  and  thatched  roofs,  invited  calam- 
ity, which  came  often  enough.  The  misery  of  war  was  enhanced  by  a 
fierce  conflagration  when  the  British  had  but  barely  taken  possession 
of  the  city  in  1776,  and  over  four  hundred  buildings  were  reduced  to 
ashes.  Two  years  later  a  fire  swept  away  fifty  houses  near  the  water 
front  between  Coenties  Slip  and  Broad  Street.    In  1811  there  was  a 


300 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


considerable  fire  which  nearly  involved  the  Brick  Presbyterian 
Church  at  Beekman  Street  and  Park  Row,  but  which  was  saved  by 
the  coolness  and  ability  of  a  sailor,  who  climbed  the  tapering  steeple 
and  dashed  out  the  fire  that  had  started  Avith  his  hat.  But  the  most 
tremendous  calamity  of  that  kind  which  ever  visited  New  York  w  as 
what  is  still  referred  to  as  the  "  Great  Fire  of  1835." 

At  about  the  hour  of  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  Wednesday,  De- 
cember 1(5,  fire  and  smoke  were  seen  to  come  from  a  five-story  house 
at  28  Merchant  (now  Hanover)  Street,  the  little  thoroughfare  that 
runs  with  a  slight  bend  from  Wall  Street  to  Hanover  Square.  This 


THE  GREAT  F1KE  OF    1835.      BUKNINU  OK  MERCHANTS'  EXCHANGE. 


w;is  about  opposite  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  which  occupied  the 
site  of  the  present  Custom  House.  It  was  an  ideal  time  for  a  confla- 
gration; for  several  days  the  thermometer  had  ranged  below  zero, 
making  it  almost  impossible  to  procure  water,  and  on  the  night  in 
question  a  lierce  gale  was  blowing.  Across  the  narrow  street  the  fire 
soon  leaped  to  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  and  one  of  the  noblest 
structures  in  the  country  fell  a  prey  to  the  flames.  The  corner-stone 
had  been  laid  in  L825,  and  in  L827  it  had  been  dedicated  to  its  useful 
purposes.  It  was  three  lofty  stories  in  height,  with  an  attic  and  base- 
ment.   The  front  on  W  all  Street  and  that  on  Garden  Street  (called 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


301 


Exchange  Place  from  it)  was  over  a  hundred  feet  long,  and  built  of 
marble.  The  first  and  second  stories  were  modeled  after  the  tem- 
ple of  Minerva  in  Ionia,  and  were  of  the  Ionic  order.  A  portico  in  the 
form  of  an  elliptical  recess  gave  entrance  to  the  building  on  the  Wall 
Street  front,  a  row  of  four  columns  thirty  feet  high  and  three  feet  in 
diameter,  each  composed  of  a  single  block  of  marble,  adorning  the 
front  of  the  portico.  On  the  roof  rose  a  cupola  sixty  feet  high,  sup- 
ported within  by  columns,  making  a  rotunda  in  the  center.  This  was 
the  Exchange  floor,  the  room  measuring  seventy-five  feet  in  length, 
fifty  feet  in  width,  and  forty-two  in  height.  The  New  York  merchants 
in  appropriate  remembrance  of  the  services  rendered  to  the  commerce 
of  his  country  by  Alexander  Hamilton,  had  erected  in  the  center  of 
the  rotunda  a  colossal  marble  statue  of  the  statesman,  sculptured  by 
the  artist  Ball  Hughes.  It  towered  to  a  height  of  fifteen  feet  from 
the  floor  of  the  room,  pedestal  and  all. 

The  vast  crowds  summoned  by  the  alarm  of  fire  stood  by  in  mute 
helplessness  as  this  magnificent  palace,  reared  as  a  fane  of  indus- 
try, the  pride  of  the  whole  city,  crumbled  to  pieces  before  their  eyes. 
The  interior  was  soon  revealed,  and  the  noble  marble  features  of 
Hamilton  seen  to  rise  above  a  sea  of  flames  around  it,  but  ere  long  the 
fierce  heat  swallowed  it  up  in  the  universal  destruction.  Almost  ad- 
joining the  Merchants'  Exchange  in  Garden  Street,  or  Exchange 
Place,  stood  the  old  South  Eeformed  Church.  Into  its  front  had  been 
built  the  old  stone  saved  from  the  church  in  the  fort  when  it  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire  at  the  time  of  the  Negro  Plot  in  1741,  recording  that 
Director  William  Kieft  had  caused  the  congregation  to  build  it.  It 
seemed  that  the  fire-fiend  was  determined  the  testy  little  Governor's 
only  good  deed  should  not  have  any  memorial  of  it  for  posterity,  for 
the  church  was  the  next  victim  of  the  flames,  and  was  hopelessly  de- 
stroyed, never  to  rise  again  from  its  ruins.  The  course  of  the  wind 
kept  the  fire  from  striking  across  to  the  northern  side  of  Wall  Street, 
thus  saving  the  banks  and  the  old  City  Hall,  where  the  Custom  House 
was  then  building.  On  the  south  side  of  Wall  Street  the  progress  of 
the  fire  was  toward  the  East  River.  Along  five  streets,  William,  Han- 
over, Pearl,  Water,  and  Front,  the  flames  were  driven  southward  by  the 
fierce  wind,  carrying -stores,  warehouses,  everything  before  them.  On 
the  open  space  at  Hanover  Square  goods  of  all  kinds  were  piled  high 
in  the  center  by  the  merchants  in  the  vicinity,  but  there  was  no  escape 
from  such  an  avalanche  of  fire  as  was  now  approaching.  The  fire 
came  traveling  toward  it  from  William,  Hanover,  and  Pearl  streets, 
and  the  costly  pile  of  silks,  satins,  laces,  cashmere  shawls,  and  all  was 
soon  consumed.  The  fire  then  rushed  on  beyond  and  ravaged  Pearl 
and  the  streets  east  of  it  as  far  as  Coenties  Slip.  Stone  Street  was 
made  into  an  avenue  of  flame,  and  some  buildings  in  Broad  Street 
were  attacked.  Since  water  failed,  gunpowder  was  tried,  hoping  to 
stop  the  fire  by  desolating  houses  in  front  of  it  and  making  spaces  it 


302 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


could  not  leap  across.  Bu1  gunpowder  was  not  to  be  had  in  the  city, 
and  only  a  small  quantity  w  as  brought  from  the  Navy  Yard  in  Brook- 
lyn. Before  the  fire  was  finally  checked  seventeen  compact  city 
blocks  in  the  very  heart  of  the  business  portion  (then  perhaps  mainly 
the  drygoods  district)  had  been  reduced  to  utter  ruin.  Six  hundred 
and  ninety-three  buildings  had  succumbed  to  the  flames.  On  Front 
Street  no  less  than  eighty  had  been  destroyed;  on  South,  sevent3'-six; 
on  Pearl,  seventy-nine;  on  Water,  seventy-six;  on  Exchange  Place, 
sixty-two.  The  total  loss  was  estimated  at  more  than  eighteen  mill- 
ions of  dollars.  Some  of  the  individual  losses  were  overw  helming; 
one  merchant  had  on  hand  three  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
silks,  of  which  not  a  dollar  w  as  saved;  another  lost  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  in  teas  and  brandies.  Mr.  Stephen  Whitney  suffered  a 
loss  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Curious  and  thrilling  inci- 
dents are  still  borne  in  mind  by  old  residents  whose  youthful  eyes 
looked  in  horror  upon  the  awful  spectacle.  At  one  time  the  East 
River  was  on  fire,  threatening  destruction  to  the  shipping.  At  the 
head  of  Coenties  Slip  a  lot  of  barrels  had  been  piled  up  containing  tur- 
pentine. As  the  fire  struck  them  the  barrels  burst  aud  the  burning 
riuid  ran  into  the  river,  floating  and  burning  on  the  top  of  the 
water.  One  tells  of  a.  brave  effort  on  the  part  of  an  officer  and 
some  sailors  from  the  Navy  Yard  to  save  the  statue  of  Hamilton 
in  the  rotunda  of  the  Exchange.  Ropes  were  tin-own  around  it 
and  the  attempt  was  nearly  crowned  with  success  when  a  cry 
went  up  that  the  roof  was  falling,  and  the  brave  fellows  barely 
escaped  being  buried  in  the  ruins.  Another  eyewitness  has  a 
story  of  the  almost  miraculous  escape  of  a  noble  old  sycamore  tree, 
which  stood  on  the  corner  of  Beaver  and  William  st  reets,  on  the  prem- 
ises of  ex-Mayor  Oadwallader  T).  Colden.  It  stood  unharmed  with 
ruin  all  around  it.  A  circumstance  remembered  with  much  gratifica- 
tion was  the  help  afforded  by  the  then  infant  enterprise  of  the  rail- 
road. A  locomotive  rushed  from  Jersey  City  to  New  ark  carrying  the 
news  of  the  disaster,  and  forthwith  returned  drawing  a  train  of  flat 
cars  with  fire  engines,  less  than  an  hour  afterward.  The  fire  was 
finally  checked  in  its  career  in  the  wide  space  ;it  Coenties  Slip,  in- 
creased materially  by  blowing  up  a  few  houses  in  the  vicinity  with 
gunpowder.  Not  too  much  praise  can  be  bestowed  upon  the  action  of 
( 'aptain  Mix  and  a  party  of  sailors  of  the  United  States  Navy.  who.  in 
the  coolest  manner,  carried  about  kegs  of  powder  through  showers  of 
sparks,  and  near  the  roaring  flames,  covered  only  with  tarpaulin  or 
pea  jackets.  Sixteen  hours  steadily  had  the  fire  lasted,  and  it  was 
now  far  past  noon  of  Thursday.  December  17.  but  for  some  days 
streams  of  water  had  to  be  poured  upon  the  hot  and  smoldering  re- 
mains. The  scene  of  the  fire  was  a  ghast  ly  sight :  not  hing  but  parts  of 
Avails  of  some  of  the  finest  buildings  and  storehouses  of  the  city  re- 
mained standing.    Scores  of  the  richest  men  were  ruined,  many  fami 


I'KOt  I  -Ho 


I'KOI  KSMON  OK  NAVY  OK  AIX  NATIONS  IN  NKW  YORK  1IAKBOK,  APRIL  26,  1893,  COLUMBIAN  CELKIiHAl 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


303 


lies  of  opulence  reduced  to  penury.  And  now  also  came  into  play  the 
baser  elements  of  human  nature.  At  the  peril  of  their  lives  a  swarm 
of  thieves  set  themselves  to  rummaging  among  the  seething  ruins. 
Over  ninety  men  were  arrested  during  the  night  while  the  fire  was 
still  at  its  worst,  caught  in  the  act  of  removing  articles  of  value  placed 
in  the  street  for  safe  keeping.  Two  hundred  were  taken  the  day  after, 
and  more  as  the  days  went  on,  till  police  courts  and  prisons  could  no 
longer  hold  the  hordes  of  miscreants.  And  amid  the  crimes  likely  to 
suggest  themselves  at  such  moments  of  fearful  excitement,  we  do  not 
wonder  there  was  one  precisely  in  line  with  what  was  going  on.  One 
wretch  was  caught  actually  trying  to  set  on  fire  a  house  on  the  corner 
of  Stone  and  Broad  streets.  It  was  necessary  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the 
United  States  marines,  who  formed  a  cordon  of  sentinels  along  the 
water  front  from  Fulton  to  Wall  street  ferries,  and  up  Wall  as  far  as 
the  ruins  of  the  Exchange.  They  stood  with  fixed  bayonets  ready  to 
drive  back  robbers  from  the  afflicted  district,  or  prevent  the  escape  of 
those  from  within  their  ranks.  Upon  official  investigation  the  nearest 
conclusion  that  could  be  arrived  at  as  to  the  origin  of  the  fire  was  that 
a  gas-pipe  in  the  store  at  28  Merchant  (Hanover)  Street  must  have 
sprung  a  leak,  and  the  escaping  gas  set  on  fire  by  live  coals  in  an  open 
grate  or  stove;  for  it  was  remembered  by  some  that  they  had  heard  a 
sound  as  of  an  explosion  proceed  from  the  building  at  that  number. 
Even  in  her  very  calamity  New  York  found  the  proof  of  her  greatness, 
the  evidence  that  she  was  already  the  head  and  center  of  the  com- 
merce and  finance  of  the  nation.  "  The  artisan  and  manufacturer," 
so  says  a  chronicler  whose  connections  are  with  other  cities  than  our 
own,  "  in  almost  every  district  of  the  United  States,  however  remote, 
were  irretrievably  involved.  Indeed,  every  species  of  business  and 
every  ramification  of  trade  throughout  the  Union  were  seriously  af- 
fected. It  was  the  fountain-head  that  had  been  so  dreadfully  rav- 
aged, and  the  whole  nation  felt  the  shock." 

As  if  naturally  drawn  to  a  place  which  was  assuming  this  promi- 
nent and  unquestioned  leadership  in  finance,  New  York  in  1829  was 
honored  by  being  adopted  as  the  residence  of  one  who  has  been  called 
the  greatest  financier  this  country  has  ever  produced  after  Hamilton. 
This  was  the  Hon.  Albert  Gallatin,  who  was  appointed  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  by  Jefferson,  and  held  that  office  until  under  Madison  in 
1811  he  felt  constrained  to  resign  it  on  account  of  a  serious  difference 
of  opinion  with  his  chief  in  the  matter  of  renewing  the  charter  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States.  He  had  been  a  strenuous,  perhaps  even 
bitter,  opponent  of  Hamilton,  but  on  the  most  fundamental  principles 
of  finance  he  could  not  but  be  in  accord  with  that  master  mind.  Curi- 
ously enough,  neither  of  these  men  were  natives  of  the  United  States, 
and  both  were  of  French  extraction,  Gallatin  being  a  French  Swiss, 
born  in  Geneva.  Gallatin  had  represented  Pennsylvania  in  the 
United  States  Senate  when  quite  young;  he  had  traveled  extensively 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in  Europe,  keenly  observing  men  and  affairs;  was  a  man  of  wide  read- 
ing and  diversified  sympathies  in  art,  literature,  and  education,  and 
was  regarded  as  the  best  talker  in  the  country.  He  rented  a  house  far 
uptown,  where  people  of  wealth  and  standing  were  beginning  to  settle. 
Mayor  Hone  resided  on  the  corner  of  Broadway  and  Great  Jones 
Street;  Gallatin  took  a  house  in  Bleecker  Street.  It  was  not  long 
after  he  came  here — in  himself  a  valuable  accession  to  New  York 
society — when  it  was  determined  to  derive  for  the  city  the  benelit  of 
his  financial  genius  and  experience.  In  1832  was  organized  the  Na- 
tional Bank  of  New  York,  and  a  lion's  share  of  the  stock  was  sub- 


COENTIES  SLIP  IX  THE  FIRE  OF  1835. 


scribed  to  by  John  Jacob  Astor,  on  condition  that  Mr.  Gallatin  should 
be  made  its  President.  He  accepted  the  offer,  although  he  had  then 
passed  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age.  It  was  fortunate  he  thus 
identified  himself  will)  the  finances  of  the  city,  for  these  were  about 
to  pass  through  a  fearful  crisis.  The  anli-Federalists.  now  known  as 
Democrats,  had  always  disliked  Hamilton's  scheme  of  a  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  (iallatiu  was  ;is  determined  a  Democral  ;is  any  of 
that  party,  but  he  did  not  let  partisanship  becloud  Ins  reason  on  the 
subject  of  the  bank.  and.  as  we  saw  .  lie  had  resigned  the  Treasury  be- 
cause Madison  and  his  cabinet  woidd  not  support  his  endeavors  to  re- 
tain the  bank  in  operation.  The  re-chartering  of  the  bank  was  made  a 
political  issue  of  the  most  blindly  partisan  nature  under  Jackson's 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


305 


administration.  In  fact,  he  had  come  into  power  pledged  to  abolish 
it.  The  charter  of  the  bank  finally  expired  in  March,  1836,  and,  of 
coarse,  its  renewal  was  impossible  under  Jackson.  It  accepted  a 
charter  from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  But  now  a  lot  of  irrespon- 
sible state  banks  sprang  up  everywhere,  reveling  in  the  funds  of  the 
United  States  promiscuously  distributed  among  such  institutions  by 
Secretary  Taney.  From  1830  to  1837  three  hundred  of  these  banks 
came  into  existence,  and  their  operations  were  of  a  very  unsteady  na- 
ture. While  times  were  flush  everything  went  well  enough.  "  Sud- 
denly a  check  came,"  says  John  A.  Stevens,  whom  we  find  it  safer  to 
follow  in  the  statement  of  the  financial  situation  than  to  attempt  our 
own  account  of  it.  "  The  balance  of  trade  turned  against  the  United 
States  to  a  sum  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  and  coin  was 
shipped  abroad  to  liquidate  the  account.  But  as  the  entire  amount  of 
specie  in  the  country  did  not  exceed  the  sum  of  seventy-three  millions, 
the  reaction  was  sharp.  .  .  .  Had  there  been  any  government 
debt  to  attract  a  foreign  investment,  the  situation  might  have  been 
tempered.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  at  this  period  the  United 
States  was  not  a  specie-producing  country.  It  accumulated  only  as 
the  result  of  a  sound  financial  policy.  It  could  not  be  retained  when 
demanded  by  Europe,  except  by  a  general  suspension.  The  result  was 
unavoidable." 

The  result  was  the  great  financial  panic  of  1837.  On  May  10  every 
bank  in  the  city  suspended,  Mr.  Gallatin's  among  the  number.  The 
tide  of  distrust  and  the  lack  of  financial  bottom  throughout  the  coun- 
try was  too  much  for  even  the  greatest  genius  to  counteract.  But  he 
immediately  went  to  work  seeking  to  remedy  the  situation.  At  his 
instance  a  meeting  of  New  York  bankers  was  held,  at  which  a  con- 
vention of  representatives  from  all  the  banks  in  the  country  was  pro- 
posed, to  assemble  in  New  York  in  October,  and  confer  upon  an  agree- 
ment as  to  a  time  for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments.  It  was  nec- 
essary for  the  New  York  banks  to  be  prompt  about  this,  as  it  was  the 
law  of  the  State  that  a  bank  failing  to  resume  within  a  period  of  one 
year  should  bo  dissolved  as  a  corporation.  The  convention  of  October 
and  another  in  December,  bringing  delegates  together  from  seventeen 
States,  could  not  make  up  their  minds  to  set  any  date  for  resumption 
earlier  than  January  1, 1839.  The  New  York  banks  could  not  wait  so 
long,  although  they  would  have  consented  to  July  1,  1838.  Accord- 
ingly they  took  matters  into  their  own  hands,  and  feeling  strong 
enough  with  such  a  person  as  Gallatin  in  their  midst  and  encouraging 
the  undertaking,  they  resolved  to  resume  on  May  10, 1838,  or  precisely 
a  year  after  suspension.  The  example  thus  set  keyed  up  the  financial 
courage  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  the  banks  generally  re- 
sumed on  Jul}  1.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  add  that  in  the  year  of  the 
panic,  1837,  there  were  twenty-three  banks  in  the  city,  with  a  capital 
aggregating  the  sum  of  $20,301,200. 


306 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Aii  event  of  ;i  nature  to  put  New  York  in  touch  with  the  public  af- 
fairs of  the  nation  was  the  visil  of  Daniel  Webster  in  .March.  1837.  a 
week  or  two  after  .one  of  the  sons  of  New  York  State  .Martin  Van 
Buren,  the  only  Knickerbocker  that  has  ascended  the  Executive  chair 
of  the  nation,  had  been  inaugurated.  Webster  had  married  for  his 
second  wife  a  lady  of  New  York,  Caroline,  the  daughter  of  Herman 
Le  Roy,  who  resided  at  7  Broadway,  or  next  door  below  the  historic 
Burns's  Coffee  House  of  Revolutionary  tame.  Here,  in  L829,  she  was 
married  to  the  great  orator,  it  being  an  auspicious  year  for  him.  as 
that  also  of  his  famous  debate  with  Hayne.  The  champion  of  inter- 
nal improvements  was  not  of  the  President's  party,  and  the  Whigs 
(descendants  of  the  Federalists  and  ancestors  of  the  Republicans)  ten- 
dered Webster  an  ovation.  In  the  evening  an  audience  of  four  or  h' ve 
thousand  assembled  in  Niblo's  Hall  to  listen  to  a  speech  by  Webster 

on  the  issues  of  the  day — the  National 
Bank,  and  the  forceful  methods  to  sup- 
press it  adopted  by  the  party  of  Jackson 
and  his  "  Heir  Apparent,"  now  in  the 
White  House. 

During  the  period  now  in  hand  immi- 
gration from  Europe  began  to  assume 
proportions  of  astonishing  magnitude. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  there  is  an 
account  preserved  of  emigration  to  New 
Amsterdam  during  seven  years,  from 
L657  to  L664,  and  that  tin1  total  number 
of  persons  brought  over  during  that 
period  was  about  eleven  hundred.  In 
L708,  1709.  and  1710  the  German  Pala- 
tines were  driven  across  the  Atlantic  by 
the  distresses  of  war.  and  the  three  thou- 
sand of  them  that  came  at  once  in  the  latter  year  tilled  the  munici- 
pal authorities  with  alarm.  Before  the  War  of  L812  immigra- 
tion from  abroad  attained  to  a  goodly  figure,  and  shortly  alter 
the  war  the  numbers  became  still  larger.  But  from  L818  to  L819 
there  was  a  sudden  leap  upward,  no  less  than  twenty  thousand 
immigrants  being  reported  at  the  Mayor's  office.  Then  there 
seemed  to  be  a  lull  in  the  Hood,  for  during  the  nine  years  from 
1820  to  1829  the  average  annual  number  of  arrivals  was  about 
ten  thousand,  or  about  ninety  thousand  altogether.  The  next  nine 
years,  however,  saw  a  phenomenal  influx  of  foreigners;  from  1S:>0 
to  ls.'JO  as  many  as  '.'['.>,. T»17  persons  arrived.  1.*>1.(>72  of  these  com- 
ing from  Ireland  alone.  In  t  he  decade  from  1840  on,  the  average  per 
year  became  nearly  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand.  No  wonder 
that  the  foreign  vote,  and  especially  the  "  Irish  vote."  began  to  count 
in  politics.    The  Democrats  seem  to  have  charmed  the  newcomers 


CHRIST! UMIKH  COLLKS. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


307 


most,  and  their  influence  turned  the  scale  decidedly  in  favor  of  that 
party,  as  a  reward  for  which  local  offices  began  to  fall  to  the  share  of 
foreign-bom  citizens  in  large  proportions. 

The  period  previously  selected  as  an  epoch  in  our  city's  history 
closed  with  a  pageant  in  celebration  of  the  Erie  Canal,  an  enterprise 
undertaken  by  the  State.  The  year  1842  was  marked  by  a  celebration 
equally  imposing,  to  do  honor  to  the  completion  of  an  enterprise  un- 
dertaken by  the  city  alone  for  the  benefit  of  its  own  citizens  and  as  a 
municipal  necessity.  This  was  the  system  tff  water  works,  by  which 
an  abundant  supply  of  wholesome  and  palatable  water  was  obtained 
from  the  Croton  River,  far  up  in  Westchester  County,  by  means  of  an 
aqueduct,  reservoir,  and  an  elaborate  network  of  subterranean  pipes. 
The  water  in  the  city  had  been  from  the  earliest  times  notoriously 
bad.  People  sank  wells  on  their  own  premises,  but  the  water  they 
drew  therefrom  was  hardly  tit  to  drink;  it  was  bad  to  the  taste  and 
dangerous  to  the  health.  The  seven  public  wells,  iu  Broadway,  Broad 
Street,  and  Wall  Street,  were  not  intended  for  drinking  purposes,  as 
they  collected  the  drainage  and  rainwater  that  ran  through  the  cen- 
ter of  the  street.  After  a  while  it  was  discovered  t  hat  one  well  in  the 
city  afforded  pure  and  cool  and  palatable  water.  It  was  apparently 
inexhaustible;  a  pump  was  put  into  it,  and  the  water  drawn  from  it 
carried  in  casks  about  the  city  and  sold  to  people  at  their  doors.  This 
well  and  pump  were  at  the  corner  of  Park  Bow  and  Roosevelt  Street, 
quite  outside  the 
limits  of  habitation 
until  well  into  the 
eighteenth  century. 
As  the  water  was 
principally  used  for 
cooking  purposes, 
and  for  preparing 
tea,  the  pump  re- 
ceived the  name  of 
the  Tea  Water 
Pump.  The  first  at- 
tempt to  establish 
waterworks  a  little 
less  primitive  was 
made  as  early  as  the  year  1774.  Two  acres  of  ground  were  pur- 
chased from  the  van  Cortlandt  estate  for  twelve  hundred  pounds, 
on  Broadway,  on  the  east  side  between  the  present  Pearl  and  White 
streets,  and  thus  almost  opposite  the  site  of  the  New  York  Hospital, 
which  was  then  in  course  of  erection.  Here  a  reservoir  was  con- 
structed under  the  direction  of  the  Engineer.  Christopher  Colics,  into 
which  water  was  pumped  from  wells  dug  on  the  grounds,  and  also 
from  the  Collect  Pond  in  the  rear.   The  water  was  then  conducted  by 


ENGINE  IN  WATERWORKS    OF  1776. 


308 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


means  of  wooden  pipes  to  different  parts  of  the  city.  It  was  a  very 
ingenious  system,  and  won  the  admiration  of  English  officers  during 
the  occupation  by  the  enemy.  One  describes  what  he  saw  very  mi- 
nutely; speaking  of  one  of  the  wells,  he  says:  "  The  well  is  forty  feet  in 
diameter,  and  thirty  feet  down  to  the  surface  of  the  water.  In  this 
well  is  an  engine  which  forces  the  water  almost  to  the  top.  and  from 
thence  through  a  wooden  tube  up  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  which  is  a 
distance  of  about  five  rods.  At  the  top  of  the  hill  is  a  pond  [the  res- 
ervoir] covering  one-quarter  of  an  acre,  from  eight  to  eleven  feet 
deep."  It  was  remembered  by  the  people  who  w  atched  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Clermont  at  the  shipyard  at  the  foot  of  East  Houston 
Street,  that  the  curious  mechanism  put  inside  that  boat  very  much  re- 
sembled the  pumping  machinery  of  the  Colics  water  works,  afterward 
utilized  by  the  Manhattan  Company.  But  somehow  these  works  fell 
into  an  innocuous  desuetude.  Whether  because  the  water  was  bad, 
or  the  supply  insufficient,  or  that  the  British  were  not  up  to  the  Yan- 
kee ingenuity  of  the  thing,  the  water  works  were  abandoned,  and 
the  people  had  to  resort  again  to  their  good  old  friend,  the  Tea  Water 
Pump.  It  may  have  been,  after  all,  the  poor  quality  of  the  Collect 
water.  That  limpid  lake  so  often  celebrated  was  not  what  it  seemed 
to  be  as  far  as  drinking  water  went.  In  1798,  when  another  system  of 
water  works  w  as  about  to  be  erected  In  its  vicinity,  proposing  to  draw 
from  it,  some  one  spoke  very  irreverently  of  our  historic  pond :  "  The 
Collect  behind  the  Tea  Water  Pump  is  a  shocking  hole,  where  all  im- 
pure things  center  together,  and  engender  the  worst  of  unwholesome 
productions.  Some  affect  to  say  that  the  water  is  very  cool  and  re- 
freshing. Everybody  knows  from  experience  the  water  gets  warm  in 
a  few  hours,  and.  sometimes,  almost  before  it  is  drawn  from  the 
carter's  hogsheads.  Can  you  bear  to  drink  it  on  Sundays  in  the  sum- 
mer time?  It  is  so  bad  before  Monday  mornings  as  to  be  very  sickly 
and  nauseating,  and  the  larger  the  city  grows,  the  worse  the  evil  will 
be."  The  w^orks  then  in  contemplation  were  those  of  the  Manhattan 
Company.  Their  counsel.  Aaron  Burr,  had  hoodwinked  the  feder- 
alists by  getting  from  them  a  charter  for  supplying  the  city  with 
water,  and  "  other  business."  At  that  time  "  watering  "  stock  had 
not  yet  become  either  a  phrase  or  a  practice,  else  the  connection  be- 
tween  finance  and  water  works  would  not  have  seemed  so  illogical. 
At  any  rate,  banking  was  the  business  Burr  and  his  clients  had  in 
mind,  and  the  .Manhattan  Company,  although  a  bank  to  this  day.  calls 
itself  by  this  indefinite  name,  not  at  all  suggestive  of  its  real  busi- 
ness. It  could  not,  however,  leave  the  water  problem  entirely  un- 
touched. An  engineer  at  its  request  laid  before  the  company  a  plan 
which  resembles  in  some  features  the  system  now  in  operation.  Tin1 
water  was  to  he  drawn  from  the  Bronx  Kiver.  carried  in  an  open 
canal  to  the  Harlem,  and  across  that  river  in  an  elevated  iron  pipe  to 
a  reservoir  on  this  island,  where  the  water  was  to  he  subjected  to  til- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


309 


tration.  But  the  Manhattan  Company  having  its  charter,  nothing 
was  done  toward  this  excellent  plan.  The  company  obtained  control 
of  the  ground  and  machinery  utilized  by  Colles,  built  a  reservoir  in 
Chambers  Street  between  Broadway  and  Centre,  dug  wells  in  the 
vicinity,  using  for  its  plant  part  of  the  building  of  the  smelting  fur- 
nace on  Reade  near  Centre  street,  and  laid  bored  logs  under  the  sur- 
face of  the  streets  to  convey  the  water.  But  again  the  water  failed  to 
satisfy  either  in  quantity  or  in  quality,  as  may  be  imagined  from  the 
description  of  it  given  above.  The  company  was  more  intent  upon 
banking  than  water,  and  the  people  had  to  return  once  more  to  the 
Tea  Water  Pump  and  water  carried  in  from  the  surrounding  country. 

Upon  the  tablet  displayed  at  the  reservoir  on  Forty-second  Street 
and  Fifth  Avenue  appears  first  on  the  list  of  commissioners  the  name 
of  Samuel  Stevens.  He  was  alderman  from  the  Second  Ward  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  his  name  deserves  that  prominence,  because  it  was 
largely  through  his  intelligent  interest  and  perseverance  that  New 
York  at  last  secured  for  itself  that  indispensable  necessity  to  health — 
good  and  abundant  water  brought  readily  into  every  home.  A  plan 
was  drawn  up  by  competent  engineers,  much  bolder  than  the  one  of 
1798,  but  on  the  same  principle.  It  was  proposed  to  draw  the  water 
from  the  Croton  River,  at  a  distance  of  forty  miles  from  the  City  Hall ; 
to  conduct  it  by  an  aqueduct  to  the  Harlem  River;  across  this  by  a 
lofty  bridge;  then  to  one  or  two  distributing  reservoirs  placed  on 
Manhattan  Island.  The  cost  of  such  a  system  was  to  run  into  the 
millions,  and  the  people  who  had  just  been  given  the  privilege,  as  we 
shall  see  below,  of  voting  for 
their  own  Mayor  in  1834,  were 
asked  to  vote  on  the  question 
of  "  Water,"  or  "  No  Water," 
in  1835.  A  large  majority 
voted  in  favor  of  the  expensive 
scheme.  But  not  a  few  mur- 
mured at  the  cost.  They  did 
not  want  to  appear  more 
squeamish  in  their  taste  than 
the  fathers  who  had  found  the 
Tea  Water  good  enough.  But 
the  fire  in  December  stopped  the  mouths  of  grumblers,  and  there  soon 
was  all  the  required  popular  enthusiasm  back  of  the  scheme  to 
push  it  along  to  accomplishment.  A  dam  was  built  across  the 
Croton  River,  making  a  basin  capable  of  holding  five  hundred 
millions  of  gallons,  covering  four  hundred  acres  of  land.  An  aque- 
duct was  constructed  down  to  the  Harlem  River,  carrying  the  heal- 
ing streams  by  tunnels  through  rocks  and  hills,  and  upon  embank- 
ments across  valleys  and  intervening  streams.  Across  the  Harlem 
was  thrown  the  magnificent  High  Bridge,  even  yet  not  eclipsed  in  its 


MANHATTAN  COMPANY'S  WATERWORKS. 


310 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


glory  by  neighboring  structures,  but  long  alone  aud  supreme,  carry- 
ing the  conduit  of  iron  and  brick  over  fourteen  piers  of  solid  granite, 
a  length  of  nearly  fifteen  hundred  feet;  the  arches  supporting  the  con- 
duit and  connecting  the  piers  having  spans  of  eighty  and  fifty  feet, 
and  at  their  keystones  rising  one  huudred  aud  fourteen  feet  above  tide 
water  iu  the  Harlem.  This  bridge  struck  the  island  at  the  present 
One  Hundred  and  Seventy-fourth  Street,  or  about  a  mile  above  the 
utmost  limit  (One  Hundred  and  Fifty-fifth  Street)  of  Simeon  De 
Witt's  plan  of  1807.  Here  much  later  a  small  reservoir  was  built  for 
Harlem  houses.  The  water  was  brought  to  the  open  air  for  the  hist 
time  after  its  journey  of  forty  miles,  in  a  reservoir  placed  where  the 
paper  plau  indicated  Sixth  Avenue  aud  Eighty-sixth  Street,  but 
where  they  never  came  to  be,  as  Central  Park  usurped  the  place  of 
streets  in  that  vicinity.  This  was  a  very  large  receptacle,  covering 
thirty-five  acres,  and  capable  of  holding  oue  hundred  and  fifty  mill- 
ions of  gallons,  giving  plenty  of  healthy  exposure  to  the  air.  This 
reservoir  is  the  square  portion  of  the  system  now  to  be  seen  in  Central 
Park,  the  circular  and  larger  basin  having  been  added  later.  A  last 
reservior  was  built  on  Murray  Hill,  at  Fifth  Avenue,  between  Fortieth 
and  Forty-second  streets,  soon  to  depart  because,  with  appliances 
now  in  use.  it  is  uot  needed,  and  is  an  e  yesore  instead  of  an  orna- 
ment amid  its  elegant  surroundings.  It  was  wont  to  be  visible  for 
miles  of  open  country  around  when  it  first  reared  up  its  Egyptian 
walls.  The  distribution  by  iron  pipes  commenced  at  this  reservoir,  its 
lofty  situation  giving  sufficient  head  of  water  for  every  part  of  the  city 
below  it.  The  New  York  Public  Library  is  to  occupy  its  site. 

The  year  1842  saw  the  completion  of  nearly  all  this  work,  at  least 
in  sufficient  measure  to  introduce  the  water  into  the  city.  And  now 
began  a  series  of  celebrations.  First,  after  the  water  from  the  dam  in 
the  Croton  had  been  allowed  to  enter  the  conduit,  a  little  boat  spe- 
cially constructed,  called  Croton  Maid,  and  capable  of  holding  four 
persons,  journeyed  through  the  entire  length  of  the  aqueduct  for  the 
pin  pose  of  a  thorough  inspection.  On  June  27  the  water  was  allowed 
to  enter  the  reservoir  at  Eighty-sixth  Street  in  the  presence  of  a  distin- 
guished company;  and  again,  on  July  4,  the  day  was  made  doubly 
glorious  by  similar  ceremonies  in  the  august  presence  of  State  and 
City  dignitaries,  on  the  occasion  of  introducing  the  water  for  the  first 
time  into  the  distributing  reservoir  on  Murray  Hill.  It  was  not  until 
October  14, 1842,  however,  that  the  monster  demonstration  w  as  made, 
wherein  the  whole  population  were  given  a  chance  to  express  their 
delight  at  the  boon  the  art  of  man  had  bestowed  upon  them.  A  splen- 
did and  ingeniously  arranged  fountain  had  been  placed  in  City  Hall 
Park,  now,  alas,  gone!  There  was  a  large  central  pipe  with  eighteen 
smaller  ones,  and  so  arranged  that  by  shifting  the  plate  of  the  conduit 
pipe  the  spouting  waters  could  be  made  to  assume  seven  different 
shapes.    Tin's  fountain  was  set  playing  all  day.  the  power  back  of  it 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


311 


being  suck  that  the  heavy  column  of  water  from  the  largest  pipe  was 
forced  to  a  sheer  height  of  sixty  feet.  The  city  famous  for  proces- 
sions si  nee  the  days  of  the  "  Federal  ship  Hamilton  "  in  1788,  organ 
ized  one  for  this  day  which  put  all  the  former  ones  to  the  blush.  The 
President  was  invited,  but  did  not  come;  but  the  Governor  was  there, 
and  members  of  Congress,  and  Mayors  of  neighboring  cities,  and  for- 
eign consuls.  Upon  the  reviewing  stand  these  exalted  people  watched 
for  two  hours  and  ten  minutes  go  by  a  procession  indicating  by  floats 
the  interest  which  each  trade  or  handiwork,  or  profession,  took  in  the 
enterprise  just  completed.  Church  bells  rang,  cannon  boomed,  flags 
and  bunting  decorated  public  and  private  buildings.  The  procession 
came  marching  down  Broadway,  and  turned  around  the  southern  ex- 
tremity of  the  City  Hall  Park  into  Park  Row,  thus  going  by  t  he  splen- 


THE  CROTON- WATER  CELEBRATION. 


did  display  of  the  fountain  on  two  sides.  A  prominent  place  in  the 
parade  was  taken  by  the  temperance  organizations  that  dated  only 
from  the  year  1840,  and  it  was  a  feature  of  the  collation  served  at  the 
City  Hall  to  the  invited  guests,  that  no  wine  or  spirits  of  any  kind 
were  offered,— nothing  but  Croton  water.  Upon  one  of  the  floats 
drawn  by  six  horses  were  pipes  and  other  materials  and  models  used 
in  the  construction  of  the  conduit.  At  the  City  Hall  the  exercises  con- 
sisted of  the  formal  transfer  by  President  Stevens  of  the  Board  of 
Construction,  to  the  President  of  the  Croton  Aqueduct  Board,  a 
speech  in  reply  by  the  latter,  and  speeches  by  Mayor  Robert  H.  Morris 
and  Governor  William  H.  Seward.  Illuminations  at  night  closed  a 
day  of  happy  memory,  marred  by  no  disturbances  of  any  kind. 


312 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


In  the  history  of  municipal  government  in  our  city  we  reach  an 
event  during  this  period  of  the  most  critical  importance.  In  1>:'.4 
home  rule  for  New  York  was  finally  made  complete  by  the  popular 
election  of  the  Mayor.  It  is  strange  how  persistent  aucient  tradi- 
tions are.  Peter  Stuyvesant  refused  the  privilege  of  electing  their 
Burgomasters  to  the  people  of  New  Amsterdam  in  1653.  The  Royal 
Governor  and  his  Council  invariably  appointed  the  Mayor  under  the 
English  rule.  And  when  English  rule  was  repudiated  and  the  people 
became  their  own  sovereigns,  the  idea  that  the  Mayor  of  a  city  must 
be  appointed  by  some  outside  authority  so  prevailed  that  the  appoint- 
ing power  was  vested  in  a  specially  created  body,  the  Council  of  Ap- 
pointment, clumsy  in  composition  and  hardly  ever  smooth  in  its  oper- 
ations. Concessions  had  been  gradually  making,  however,  to  the 
genius  of  republican  government,  and  as  we  saw  in  1822,  only  the 
Recorder  remained  to  be  appointed  by  State  authority,  Sheriff  and 
Clerk  being  elected  by  the  people,  and  the  Mayor  by  the  Common 
Council.  The  last  Mayors  who  were  thus  put  in  office  during  the 
period  now  in  hand  were  Walter  Bowne  and  Gideon  Lee.  Mr.  Bowne 
was  of  Quaker  descent,  his  family  settling  at  Flushing  before  the  days 
of  Stuyvesant,  and  getting  well  persecuted  by  the  Director.  Mr. 
Bowne's  political  affiliations  were  with  the  Democrats.  His  sister 
had  married  Walter  Franklin,  who  built  the  house  Washington  first 
occupied,  her  second  husband  being  Samuel  Osgood;  and  one  of  her 
daughters  became  the  first  wife  of  De  Witt  Clinton.  Mr.  Bowne  also 
married  out  of  the  Quaker  line,  taking  for  a  wTife  a  daughter  of  one 
of  the  old  Dutch  families  of  King's  County.  He  engaged  in  the  hard- 
ware business  at  Burling  Slip  and  Water  Street,  and  attained  great 
wealth.  He  was  elected  Mayor  in  1828,  serving  for  several  terms,  and 
had  before  this  represented  the  city  as  Senator  at  Albany.  In  1833 
he  was  succeeded  in  the  Mayorality  by  Gideon  Lee,  who  served  only 
one  year.  He  Avas  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  establishing  an  exten- 
sive leather  business,  still  maintained  by  his  sons,  in  the  "  Swamp  " 
district.  In  1834  the  State  Constitution  was  changed  so  as  to  give  to 
New7  York  City  alone  of  all  the  cities  of  the  State  the  privilege  of  elect- 
ing a  Mayor  by  popular  vote.  In  1S34  that  vote  was  v  ery  extensive, 
amounting  practically,  since  1826,  to  manhood  suffrage,  except  in  the 
case  of  colored  people.  All  male  white  citizens  who  rented  a  tone 
ment  at  an  annual  rate  of  $25  at  least,  and  all  taxpayers  were  per- 
mitted to  vote  at  charter  elections.  Accordingly,  on  April  10.  1834, 
the  citizens  of  New  York  met  at  the  polling  places  in  the  several 
wards,  to  do  what  their  forefathers  had  only  once  done  before  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half  ago,  under  the  Democratic  rule  of  Jacob  Leisler. 
Democrats  (with  a  slightly  different  signification)  ruled  on  this  day. 
Cornelius  Van  Wyck  Lawrence  was  the  candidate  of  Tammany  Hall, 
strong  partisans  of  Jackson.  Gulian  C.  Yerplanck  was  run  as  an  in- 
dependent, non-partisan  candidate,  apart  from  issues  of  a  national 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


313 


bearing.  Lawrence  was  elected,  but  unhappily  a  fierce  riot  attended 
this  first  exercise  of  home  rule.  Indeed,  throughout  this  year  (1834) 
that  deserves  to  be  honorably  marked,  so  many  disgraceful  riots  oc- 
curred that  it  is  known,  from  that  less  honorable  circumstance,  as 
"  the  year  of  the  riots." 

First  came  the  Election  Riot,  in  April.  Tammany  was  divided 
into  two  factions.  The  Whigs  (old  Federalists)  had  long  been  in  the 
minority,  but  Tammany's  division  made  the  election  very  close  and 
correspondingly  exciting,  so  that  Lawrence*  was  elected  by  only  a 
small  majority.  At  that  time  there  was  no  registration  of  voters,  and 
in  each  of  the  fourteen  wards  there  was  only  one  polling  place;  thus 
trouble  could  easily  be  made  by  violent  and  fraudulent  persons. 
About  noon  there  was  great  disturbance  at  the  polling  place  in  the 
Sixth  Ward,  in  the  heart  of  the  poorest  section  of  the  city,  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  "  Five  Points."  Jackson  Democrats  took  possession  of  the 
polling  place,  sacked  its  contents,  and  destroyed  the  ballots  already 
cast.  Near  by,  on  the  block  bounded  by  Centre,  Elm,  Franklin,  and 
White  Streets,  stood  the  State  Arsenal.  The  mob  surged  toward 
Broadway  raiding  the  gun  shops,  and  it  was  feared  they  would  rifle 
the  Arsenal  of  its  arms.  A  number  of  citizens  hastened  to  the  aid  of 
the  police  until  the  Twenty-seventh  (later  the  Seventh)  Regiment 
could  be  brought  into  action;  who  further  prevented  any  harm  being- 
done  by  the  mob  here.  In  the  evening  partisans  of  the  Whigs  met  at 
Masonic  Hall  in  Broadway  opposite  the 
Hospital,  and  voted  to  repair  in  force  next 
day  to  the  Sixth  Ward  polling  place,  and 
compel  a  fair  vote  for  their  candidate. 
There  was  no  disturbance  on  the  next  day; 
but  on  the  third  there  was  an  encounter  on 
Broadway  in  front  of  Masonic  Hall,  in 
which  the  Mayor  himself  and  many  of  the 
city-watch  were  hurt  in  an  attempt  to  re- 
store order.  This  was  accomplished  only  by 
the  aid  of  the  militia.  It  was  the  first  time 
the  Twenty-seventh  (or  Seventh)  Regiment 
had  displayed  its  efficiency  as  an  aid  to  keep 
or  restore  peace  and  protect  life  and  prop- 
erty, and  wras  the  beginning  of  a  brave  and 
brilliant  career  for  it.  The  Common  Council  showed  its  appreciation 
of  its  services  by  passing  a  vote  of  thanks  "  to  the  individuals  who 
thus  nobly  sustained  their  reputation  as  citizen  soldiers,  and  proved 
the  importance  and  necessity  to  the  city  of  a  well-disciplined  militia 
in  time  of  peace,  as  well  as  in  time  of  war." 

The  "  Abolition  Riot  "  was  next  on  this  undesirable  list.  Slavery 
was  abolished  in  the  State,  as  we  saw;  but  cotton  having  made  slav- 
ery profitable,  and  its  production  and  export  having  become  an  im- 


MASONIC  HALL  ON 
BROADWAY. 


314 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


mouse  business,  naturally  ;i  Large  portion  of  New  Yorkers  were  di- 
rectly interested  in  the  maintenance  of  slavery  at  the  South.  Hence 
the  populace  looked  with  no  favor  on  the  agitations  for  abolition  in 
the  Union  which  William  Lloyd  Garrison  had  begun.  In  the  autumn 
of  1833  he  had  sought  to  organize  public  meetings  to  advocate  the 
cause  in  New  York  City.  These  meetings  were  usually  molested  by 
the  mob,  and  often  broken  up  altogether.    In  July.  a  mob  at- 

tacked a  chapel  on  Chatham  Street,  which  had  been  rented  by  the 
colored  people  for  religious  services,  and  where  a  negro  minister  was 
preaching.  The  audience  was  driven  out  after  a  slight  resistance. 
Lewis  Tappan,  a  rich  Quaker  merchant,  who,  like  all  of  his  faith,  was 
an  enthusiastic  friend  of  the  negroes,  was  present  at  the  meeting. 
He  had  been  one  of  those  to  call  the  abolition  meeting  the  previous 
October,  and  he  was  marked  for  vengeance  by  the  mob.  They  fol- 
lowed him  to  his  house  in  Rose  Street  near  by,  hooting  and  threaten- 
ing him,  and  throwing  stones  at  his  house.  The  next  day  the  chapel 
was  again  visited  and  broken  open,  but  there  were  no  negroes  there. 
So  the  mob  rushed  to  the  Bowery  Theater,  whose  manager  was  an 
abolitionist;  driven  away  by  the  police  before  much  harm  was  done, 
the  miscreants  rushed  back  to  Rose  Street  and  sacked  the  house  of 
Nathan,  the  brother  of  Lewis  Tappan.  It  is  pleasant  to  note  here  a 
circumstance  growing  out  of  this  event  at  the  fire  of  1835.  The  Tap- 
pan  brothers  had  a  great  drygoods  business.  Their  warehouse  was 
built  of  stone,  and  the  windows  were  provided  with  shutters  of  heavy 
boiler  iron  to  guard  against  such  attacks  by  the  mob  as  had  ruined 
their  homes  on  Rose  Street.  These  walls  and  shutters  resisted  the 
fire  for  a  long  time,  so  that  ere  it  reached  the  warehouse  ample  op- 
portunity was  given  to  a  great  number  of  the  colored  people  to  show 
their  love  and  gratitude.  They  fairly  risked  their  lives  in  helping  to 
save  the  firm's  goods.  The  books  and  papers  and  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars'  worth  of  property  wrere  thus  removed  to  a  place  of 
safety.  "  The  energy  and  daring,"  remarks  an  eyewitness,  "  with 
which  the  colored  people  pressed  forward,  in  the  face  of  every  ob- 
stacle, to  save  .Mr.  Tappan's  property,  greatly  impressed  the  bystand- 
ers." 

On  the  night  of  July  11,  the  trouble  was  removed  to  another  part 
of  the  city.  St.  John's  Church  was  not  now  ou  the  edge  of  a  wilder- 
ness but  in  the  center  of  the  finest  residences  of  the  choicest  people 
of  the  town.  Nor  Avas  it  the  only  church  in  that  distant  neighbor- 
hood. A  fine  Presbyterian  Church  stood  on  the  corner  of  Varick  and 
Laighl  Streets,  opposite  the  same  swamp,  which  had  now  been  con- 
verted into  a  handsome  park,  accessible  only  to  the  residents  upon  its 
surrounding  streets,  like  Gramerey  Park  to-day.  And  still  further 
out.  as  it  would  have  been  thought  in  1S07.  in  Spring  Street  near 
Varick,  was  another  Presbyterian  Church,  within  a  stone's  throw  of 
Purr's  Richmond  Hill  estate,  now  for  many  years  owned  by  John 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


315 


Jacob  Astor.  The  Rev.  Samuel  H.  Cox,  the  pastor  of  the  Laighl 
Street  Church,  was  au  inveterate  foe  of  slavery,  outspoken,  and  fear- 
less; and  the  Eev.  Henry  G.  Ludlow,  of  Spring  Street  Church,  was 
equally  offensive  to  those  who  were  now  rioting.  So  the  mob  swerved 
over  to  this  part  of  town  and  made  fierce  attacks  on  the  churches  of 
these  clergymen.  As  a  result  Dr.  Cox  resigned  a  little  later,  as  his 
congregation  did  not  like  him  to  provoke  such  ruinous  assaults  on 
their  property.  Both  of  his  sons  entered  the  Episcopal  Church,  and 
one  was  later  the  celebrated  Cleveland  Co'x,  Bishop  of  Buffalo. 
While  the  rioters  were  busy  with  these  churches  the  Twenty-seventh 
(Seventh)  Regiment  marched  upon  them.  They  had  thrown  up  bar- 
ricades in  regular  Parisian  style.  The  militiamen  with  all  the  sang 
froid  of  veterans  stormed  and  carried  the  barricades,  and  scattered 
the  materials  in  every  direction,  the  mob  back  of  them  having  done 
the  same  for  themselves  before  the  resolute  advance  of  the  citizen 
soldiers.  The  next  day  the  volunteer  firemen  offered  their  assistance 
in  quelling  the  mob,  and  the  disturbance  passed  away. 

But  a  taste  for  rioting  is  infectious.  In  August,  1834,  there  was 
again  another  tumult  of  the  populace.  It  was  considerably  more  of 
the  nature  of  the  uprisings  to  which  we  are  accustomed  in  these  days, 
it  being  an  attempt  to  interfere  with  the  building  of  the  New  York 
University  on  Washington  Square.  In  1824  there  was  trouble  at  the 
building  of  Scudder's  Museum  on  Broadway,  because  stone-cutters 
objected  to  the  use  of  marble  as  a  building  material.  Not  a  workman 
could  be  found  willing  to  labor  at  its  construction,  and  a  convict  had 
to  be  pardoned  out  of  Sing  Sing  prison  in  order  to  get  the  work  done. 
With  this  in  mind  the  authorities  of  the  University  arranged  to  hav< 
the  marble  for  their  edifice  hewed  and  shaped  by  the  State  prisoners 
at  Sing  Sing,  the  blocks  being  taken  there  direct  from  the  West- 
chester marble  quarries.  This  did  not  suit  the  stone-cutters  in  the 
city,  and  the  riot  that  ensued  goes  by  their  name,  although  doubtless 
due  as  much  to  the  rough  element  among  their  sympathizers.  The 
mob  was  headed  off  in  time  by  the  Twenty-seventh  (Seventh)  who  en- 
camped on  Washington  Parade  ground  (now  the  Park)  and  were  kept 
under  arms  for  four  days  and  nights. 

In  1835  there  was  another  riot,  called  the  "  Five  Points'  Riot  "  from 
its  locality.  It  grew  out  of  the  antagonism  between  native  Ameri- 
cans and  the  Irish  immigrant  population.  It  had  been  announced 
that  an  Irish  regiment  was  about  to  be  organized,  and  the  Americans 
of  the  "  baser  sort "  did  not  like  it,  so  there  was  a  free  fight  in  the 
streets  converging  near  Chatham  Square,  on  Sunday,  June  21.  The 
prominent  citizens  who  tried  to  preserve  the  peace  were,  as  usual, 
roughly  handled,  and  some  badly  injured,  yet  to  the  credit  of  the 
municipal  government  it  must  be  said  that  their  own  police  quelled 
the  disturbance  without  the  intervention  of  the  militia.  Finally,  in 
1837.  this  era  was  marked  by  a  "  Flour."  or  "  Bread  Riot."  The  panic 


316 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


w  as  near  its  birth  and  speculation  of  all  kinds  was  rampant.  There 
had  been  a  short  crop  of  wheat  the  season  before,  and  it  was  an- 
nounced that  it  was  certain  the  crop  of  Virginia  was  ruined  for  the 
next  season.  This  was  just  a  state  of  things  for  the  feverish  financial 
frame  of  mind  to  seize  upon  for  running  up  prices  and  cornering  the 
stock  there  was  on  hand.  Prices  went  up  at  a  ruinous  rate.  Flour 
advanced  from  $7  to  $12  per  barrel;  meat  jumped  to  a  fancy  price, 
and  coal  rose  to  $10  per  ton.  The  people  became  aware  that  commis- 
sion merchants  were  accumulating  provisions  and  keeping  them  back 
from  the  markets,  in  order  to  get  still  higher  prices  later.  A  meeting 
was  called  in  the  City  Hall  Park  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of 
February  10,  1837,  in  the  manner  of  the  pre-Revolutionary  days, — by 
means  of  a  placard  borne  about  the  city  where  the  laboring  people 
mostly  lived,  bearing  the  words,  "  Bread,  Meat,  Rent,  Fuel, — the 
voice  of  the  people  shall  be  heard."  At  the  meeting  one  of  the  rough 
and  ready  orators  told  his  excited  auditors  that  a  commission  mer- 
chant of  the  name  of  Eli  Hart,  had  in  store  in  his  warehouse  on  Wash- 
ington Street,  fifty-three  thousand  barrels  of  four.  If  true,  there  must 
have  been  some  intention  of  "  cornering  "  about  this.  At  any  rate 
the  announcement  acted  like  a  spark  on  gunpowder  upon  the  crowd. 
In  a  twinkle  they  were  rushing  down  to  Washington  Street,  forced 
open  Hart's  store,  and  ere  long  it  rained  flour  barrels  upon  the  street. 
About  five  hundred  ruined  barrels  had  thus  been  supposed  to  con- 
tribute to  cheaper  flour  when  the  cry  that  the  militia  was  coming  dis- 
persed the  mob.  One  or  two  other  stores  were  visited  in  a  similar 
manner,  discouraging,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  the  abominable  practice  of 
speculating  in  the  price  of  such  daily  necessaries. 

It  has  been  said  that  at  the  election  of  Mayor  Lawrence  his  major- 
ity was  much  reduced  because  Tammany  Hall  was  divided  into  two 
factions.  One  of  these  called  themselves  the  "  Equal  Rights  "  party 
becaused  opposed  to  monopolies,  franchises  or  cha iters  for  banks  or 
other  corporations.  The  rather  clumsy  name  was  changed  into  a 
more  popular  designation  by  a  circumstance  which  illustrates  the 
beginnings  of  things  wherewith  Ave  have  been  so  long  familiar.  Gas 
had  been  in  use  for  ten  years,  and  its  introduction  into  private  and 
public  buildings  was  quite  common.  But  matches  were  then  still  a 
novelty.  It  was  a  great  convenience  to  have  the  tinder-box  and  Hint 
supplanted  by  a  little  splinter  of  wood,  which  by  a  mere  scratch 
would  emit  fire.  At  a  meeting  in  Tammany  Hall  the  faction  opposed 
to  the  "Equal  Rights"  noticed  that  at  the  approaching  proceedings 
they  would  be  outnumbered  by  their  rivals.  Accordingly  they 
thought  to  disperse  the  gathering  and  disconcert  the  opposition  by 
turning  out  the  gas  lights.  It  happened,  however,  that  some  of  the 
"  Equal  Rights"  men  carried  boxes  of  the  newly  invented  matches 
upon  their  persons,  and  the  lights  were  soon  ablaze  again.  The 
matches  went  by  the  name  of  Loco  /oco.  on  what  principle  of  Latin- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


317 


ity  (if  any)  it  is  hard  to  tell.   But  the  opportune  possession  of  these 
handy  substitutes  for  the  tinder-box  gave  the  name  of  "  Locofoeos  " 
to  the  party  which  had  hitherto  carried  a  more  descriptive  title.  It 
is  correctly  remarked  by  Miss  Booth  "  that  most,  if  not  all,  of  the 
party  appellations  which  have  served  at  various  times  to  distinguish 
the  politics  of  the  country  first  originated  in  this  city — Federalist. 
Republican,  Whig,  Democrat,  Locofoco,  and  many  more."    In  1837 
Mayor  Aaron  Clarke,  the  second  to  be  elected  by  the  people,  owed  his 
success  to  the  strength  of  the  Locofoco  faction  which  so  crippled  Tam- 
many Hall  that  the  Whigs,  whose  candidate  he  was,  carried  the  elec- 
tion.  He  had  17,000  votes,  and  two  other  candidates  had  13,000  and 
4,000  respectively.    The  term  of  the  Mayor  was  only  one  year  then, 
and  in  1838  the  Whigs  again  profited  by  division  in  the  ranks  of  "  the 
enemy."   But  Mayor  Clarke's  plurality  was  only  about  five  hundred 
then,  and  in  1839  the  Democrats,  now  united  by  accepting  in  common 
some  of  the  Locofoco  ideas,  carried  the  charter  election,  and  continued 
to  do  so  until  1844.   Isaac  L.  Yarian,  whom  Clarke  had  beaten  by  five 
hundred  votes  the  year  before,  now  in  turn  had  beaten  him  by  over  a 
thousand.    He  was  highly  spoken  of  by  men  of  the  opposite  party, 
and  was  popular  as  a  prominent  "  fire-lad,"  or  member  of  the  Volun- 
teer fire  department,  which  furnished  no  less  than  seven  Mavors  to 
the  city.     He  owned  a  farm  about 
where  the  Gilsey  House  stands,  on 
Broadway  and  Twenty-ninth  Street. 
When   he   was   re-elected   in  1S40, 
the  novel   expedient   of  registering 
voters  previous  to  election  was  first 
put  into  operation.    It  was  combined 
with  the  division  of  the  wards  into 
voting    districts,    so    that  instead 
of  one  polling  place  for  each  ward 
there  were  now  several,  greatly  ex- 
pediting the  work  of  receiving  bal- 
lots and  gaining  time,  as  now  all 
the  voting  could  be  done  on  one  day. 
It  is  a  pity  that  in  1842  the  excel- 
lent provision  of  registering  was  re- 
pealed.     In    1841    Robert  Hunter 
Morris  was  elected  Mayor.    His  name 
is  of  interest,  bringing  back  vividly  the  old  colonial  times.    He  was 
a  descendant  of  Lewis  Morris,  the  Chief  Justice  of  New  York 
Province  under  Robert  Hunter,  the  Royal  Governor.   The  Chief  Jus- 
tice had  named  one  of  his  sons  after  the  Governor,  and  the  name  was 
revived  once  more  in  the  Mayor.   He  owed  his  election  probably  to  a 
species  of  political  persecution.    In  1838  he  was  appointed  Recorder 
of  the  City,  the  one  officer  still  remaining  under  the  control  of  the 


MAYOR  WALTER  BOWNE. 


318 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Governor  of  the  State.  Just  before  election  day  in  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1840,  when  Harrison  was  the  Whig  candidate,  a  plol  was 
organized  by  a  certain  Glentworth  for  "colonizing"  vtfters  from 
Philadelphia  in  New  York.  They  were  to  be  brought  to  New  York  on 
the  pretense  of  being  employed  to  lay  pipes  for  the  Croton  water. 
The  Recorder  and  District-Attorney  on  receiving  wind  of  the  plot, 
went  at  once  to  the  house  of  Glentworth  to  demand  his  papers,  for 
fear  the  evidence  might  be  destroyed.  It  was  not  precisely  regular  in 
a  free  country,  and  Governor  Seward,  himself  a  Whig,  removed 
Morris  from  office.  This  was  the  signal  for  the  Democrats  to  vindi- 
cate his  promptness  in  exposing  the  fraud  of  the  opposition,  and  Mor- 
ris was  elected  .Mayor  at  the  next  charter  election  in  1841,  and  during 
three  subsequent  years.  In  1840  the  population  had  grown  to  312,- 
852.  In  1X42  the  city  was  divided  into  seventeen  wards.  Those  who 
have  read  with  delight  the  many  historical  items  there  collected,  and 
have  looked  with  gratitude  upon  the  pictures  of  houses  and  neighbor- 
hoods which  would  otherwise  have  been  buried  in  oblivion,  contained 
in  the  long  series  of  Valentine's  Manuals,  will  not  deem  it  unworthy 
of  notice  in  a  history  of  this  city,  that  Mr.  Valentine,  as  Clerk  of  the 
Common  Council,  issued  the  tirst  of  these  manuals  in  this  same  year 
1842.  It  was  but  a  small  volume,  and  contained  as  yet  no  historical 
matter. 

Up  to  this  period  the  principal  wharfage  for  shipping  had  been  on 
the  East  Kiver  shore,  and  indeed  to  this  day  the  large  sailing  vessels 
may  still  be  seen  lying  there.  But  with  the  advent  of  the  steamboat 
the  North  River  shore  began  to  be  utilized,  and  now  there  was  an  ex- 
tent of  three  miles  of  wharfage  from  Corlear's  Hook  around  the  Bat- 
tery to  Hubert  Street,  where  the  North  Battery  was  located,  on  the 
Hudson.  As  was  noticed  in  connection  with  the  "  Abolition  Kiot," 
the  newly  developed  cotton  trade  of  the  South  was  making  much 
business  for  New  York  as  well.  The  cotton  was  brought  here  to  be 
trans-shipped  to  Europe,  or  sent  to  the  factories  in  New  England. 
In  1S27  no  less  than  215.705  bales  of  cot  ton  came  to  t  he  port,  of  which 
191,626  were  sent  to  Europe,  and  24,000  to  home  manufacturers. 
Commerce  had  received  a  frightful  blow  from  the  tire  of  L835,  but  the 
recovery  was  quick  and  characteristic.  The  panic  of  is:>7  was 
another  calamity  to  mercantile  interests,  but  good  times  soon  suc- 
ceeded. The  Erie  ('anal  was  bringing  a  golden  stream  of  prosperity 
from  the  inexhaustible  West,  and  the  railroads  and  telegraph,  soon 
to  be  noticed,  were  doing  much  to  add  to  the  commercial  and  finan- 
cial importance  of  the  city.  One  handmaid  of  business  w  as  gradually 
approaching  its  modern  marvelous  efficiency.  In  17!»!»  the  mail  was 
an  expensive  luxury  and  slow  in  movement:  for  a  distance  less  than 
forty  miles  1  he  cost  of  carrying  a  letter  w  as  eight  cents;  for  a  distance 
between  three  and  live  hundred  miles  the  cost  was  twenty  cents;  and 
over  five  hundred  miles,  twenty-tive  cents.    In  f842  the  rates  were 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


319 


still  high  from  our  standpoint:  three  cents  for  less  than  three  hun- 
dred miles;  ten  cents  for  more  than  three  hundred  miles.  At  the 
close  of  the  century  merchants  had  complained  because  the  postoffice 
was  taken  up  by  Bauman  to  62  Broadway,  or  the  corner  of  Liberty 
Street.  In  1807  it  was  nearer  the  center  of  business  again,  at  the 
corner  of  William  Street  and  Garden  Street  (Exchange  Place). 
Theodorus  Bailey,  the  Postmaster,  lived  in  the  house.  There  were 
one  hundred  boxes  in  the  vestibule,  enteredt  from  William  Street. 
In  1827  the  postoffice  was  removed  to  the  Merchants'  Exchange, 
and  in  1835  was  involved  in  its  destruction.  It  was  then  taken  to  the 
Rotunda  in  City  Hall  Park,  whence,  about  1844,  it  went  to  the  old 
Middle  Dutch  Church  in  Nassau  Street,  and  to  its  present  imposing- 
home,  again  in  City  Hall  Park,  less  than  thirty  years  ago. 

This  was  the  era  of  the  introduction  of  the  cheap  and  great  New 
York  daily  newspapers.  There  were  a  great  number  of  journals  pub- 
lished in  the  city  during  the  first  three  decades  of  the  century,  some 
of  which,  such  as  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  and  Evening  Post,  we  have 
already  mentioned.  The  Morning  Courier,  edited  by  James  Watson 
Webb,  the  father  of  General 
Alexander  S.  Webb,  the  hero 
of  Gettysburg  and  President 
of  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York;  the  Courier  and  In- 
quirer ;  the  Journal  of  Com- 
merce, started  in  1827;  the  New 
York  Mirror,  for  Avhich  N.  P. 
Willis  and  Poe  and  other  ce- 
lebrities wrote,  were  among 
the  most  prominent  ones.  They 
were  dignified  and  stately  af- 
fairs, costing  six  cents  at  the 
lowest  per  number,  but  not 
vulgarly  hawked  upon  the 
streets;  they  were  sent  around 
to  regular  subscribers.  In 
October,  1832,  James  Gordon 
Bennett  ventured  upon  some- 
thing more  accessible  to  small 
purses.  He  started  the  New 
York  Globe,  sold  at  two  cents  a 
copy,  but  the  paper  only  lived  a  month.  A  bolder  innovation  was 
that  conceived  by  a  young  doctor  of  the  name  of  Sheppard.  On 
January  1,  1833,  he  issued  the  Morn  tug  Post;  its  cost  was  only 
a  penny  a  paper,  and  another  novelty  was  the  employment  of 
boys  to  carry  it  about  the  streets  and  sell  it  to  people  whose 
patronage  they  solicited — in  short,  newsboys,    lie  had  barely  sue- 


320 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


ceeded  iu  getting  credit  from  Horace  Greeley  and  Francis  Story, 
two  young  men  who  had  just  set  up  a  printing  business:  they  had  no 
faith  in  his  newspaper  experiment  at  all.  J>r.  Sheppard  met  Avith  no 
success,  and  the  foresight  of  the  young  printers  was  vindicated.  But 
his  idea  lived:  eight  months  later,  in  September,  1833,  Benjamin  H. 
Day,  a  practical  journalist,  issued  the  first  number  of  the  Sun,  sold  at 
a  penny  by  newsboys,  who  in  the  first  hour  or  two  had  sold  all  the 
copies  he  had  given  them.  Success  was  soon  assured;  in  less  than  a 
year  the  Sun  had  a  circulation  of  8,000,  and  publisher  and  newsboys 
both  found  that  they  were  making  money.  Its  example  was  soon  fol- 
lowed. Horace  Greeley  was  now  convinced  that  the  young  medical 
man  was  right,  and  in  March,  1834,  he,  with  two  partners,  began  the 
publication  of  the  New  Yorker.  James  Gordon  Bennett  also  came  for- 
ward again,  publishing  the  first  number  of  the  New  York  Herald  on 
May  (i.  1835,  selling  it  at  the  price  of  two  cents  a  copy.  On  April  10, 
1841.  appeared  the  Tribune,  published  by  Horace  Greeley  and  edited 
by  Henry  J.  Raymond,  Avho  ten  years  later  started  the  New  York 
Times;  while  the  World  began  its  career  in  18G0. 

We  have  already  noted  the  migration  of  churches  from  down  town 
to  up-town  in  the  previous  chapter,  and  that  the  Abolition  Riot  pur- 
sued two  Presbyterian  Churches  to  their  location  pretty  nearly  in 
Greenwich.  Another  Presbyterian  Church  ventured  still  nearer  the 
outskirts,  and  built  on  Bleecker  Street  on  the  corner  of  Downing, 
where  the  Universalists  later  held  forth.  In  1833  the  Jews  built  a 
synagogue  on  Crosby  Street,  an  advance  upward  also  from  then-  old 
sanctuary  on  Mill  Street  (South  William).  Emigration  from  Catholic 
Ireland  and  Catholic  centers  of  Germany  greatly  swelled  the  num- 
bers of  the  Catholic  congregations  in  New  York.  Unfortunately  the 
peace  between  them  and  the  Protestants  became  disturbed  by  rea- 
son of  (lisj)tttes  over  the  share  that  should  fall  to  Catholic  Parochial 
schools  from  the  State  funds  devoted  to  public  schools  throughout 
the  Stale.  As  many  of  the  Democrat  ic  voters  belonged  to  their  faith 
the  Catholic  leaders  conceived  the  idea  of  mixing  up  this  sectarian 
question  with  politics.  They  sought  to  form  a  party  in  1841  upon  this 
issue,  pledging  support  only  to  such  candidates  as  would  favor  an 
appropriation  from  the  State  funds  to  their  church-schools,  which 
was  against  the  fundamental  principles  of  both  the  State  and  Federal 
Constitutions.  This  only  stimulated  sectarian  antipathies  on  the 
other  side,  and  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Native  American  party,  of 
a  kin  with  the  national  "know-nothings,"  whose  main  watchword 
was  opposition  t<>  Koine,  a  cry  that  should  never  have  been  heard  in 
the  American  Union,  and  would  not  if  Washington's  ideas  on  reli- 
gious matters  could  have  been  strictly  adhered  to.  That  it  was  raised 
was  largely  the  Romish  Church's  own  fault.  In  the  course  of  the  re- 
criminations t  ho  Gat  holies  retorted  that  the  Public  School  (Society's 
schools  were  sectarian  because  the  Protestant  Bible  was  read  at  their 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


321 


sessions;  and  thus  the  unhappy  opposition  to  the  reading  of  Scripture 
in  schools,  as  being  a  sectarian  book,  was  added  to  the  other  conten- 
tion, and  by  the  aid  of  infidel  hostility  to  the  sacred  volume,  the  read- 
ing of  it  was  finally  abolished  altogether. 

New  York  State,  from  an  early  date,  interested  itself  in  the  cause 
of  education.  In  1784  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University  of  New 
York  was  instituted,  who  were  to  advance  the  interests  of  learning 
throughout  the  State,  and  especially  take  into  consideration  the  ex- 
tension of  a  common  school  system.  In  1789  a*nd  1795  measures  were 
taken  by  the  Legislature  to  create  a  fund  for  the  support  of  education. 
In  1805  a  law  was  passed  by  which  the  proceeds  of  500,000  acres  of 
public  domain  were  to  be  accumulated  until  its  income  should  reach 
the  sum  of  $50,000,  which  should  then  be  applied  to  the  uses  of  the 
the  schools  of  the  State.  In  1819  the  accumulation  had  risen  to  $1,- 
200,000.  In  1S22  the  consti- 
tution then  adopted  con- 
tained a  clause  making  this 
school  fund  inviolable  and 
inalienable  to  other  pur- 
poses. The  trouble  with 
Kieft  in  the  early  days  had 
been  that  he  perpetually 
used  moneys  raised  for 
school  purposes  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  the  war  against 
the  Indians  he  had  exas- 
perated. In  the  year  1812 
the  school  fund  amounted  to 
a  productive  capital  of  ten 
millions  of  dollars.  A  study 
of  the  origin  of  the  Public 
School  Society  gives  consid- 
erable countenance  to  the 
charge  of  the  Romanists  that 
their  schools  were  practi- 
cally sectarian.  They  were  intended  to  benefit  children  who  were 
in  no  connection  with  churches,  the  schools  heretofore  being  in- 
separably connected  with  the  churches;  and  whether  they  took 
pay  or  were  gratuitous,  they  were  only  to  embrace  children  of 
the  church.  It  was  the  children  destitute  of  religious  privileges,  and 
thereby  destitute  of  educational  advantages,  whom  the  benevolent 
gentlemen  who  met  at  Mr.  Murray's  house  in  1805  had  in  view,  and, 
of  course,  the  instruction  provided  for  them  was  not  unmixed  with 
religious  teaching,  and  that  from  the  nature  of  the  case  was  of  the 
Protestant  order.    When  the  Roman  Catholics  came  to  count  for 


st.  Patrick's  cathedral,  1815. 


322 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


something  among  the  sects  in  the  city,  then  nnsectariau  education, 
which  at  first  had  meant  only  an  absence  of  bias  as  between  Presby- 
terians, or  Dutch  Reformed,  or  Baptists,  or  Methodists,  «»r  Lutherans, 
or  Episcopalians,  had  also  to  mean  an  absence  of  bias  as  between 
Romanists  and  Protestants.  Hence  in  1842  Governor  Seward 
recommended  to  the  Legislature  a  law  extending  the  common 
school  system  of  the  State,  which  was  strictly  non-sectarian, 
to  the  city.  This  resulted  in  the  erection  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, and  rendered  the  bestowal  of  the  State  funds  perfectly 
impartial  as  between  Bomanists  and  Protestants,  allowing  each 
to  have  their  own  church-schools  if  they  pleased,  but  not  permit- 
ting them  to  claim  for  these  any  share  of  the  public  money. 
Gradually  the  friends  of  education  saw  the  wisdom  of  the  new 
state  of  affairs.  In  1853  the  Public  School  Society  was  no  longer 
a  necessity,  and  all  its  belongings  naturally  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  Board  of  Education.  It  made  education  the  right  of  all  and  a 
charity  to  none.  In  1S25  the  "  free  "  schools  had  been  changed  into 
pay  schools,  each  child  being  charged  twenty-five  cents  to  one  dollar 
per  quarter,  and  presumably  the  poor  children's  expenses  were  paid 
by  the  society.  All  these  distinctions  were  now  abolished,  and  no 
child  needed  to  pay;  the  State  and  city  bound  themselves  to  educate 
their  youthful  citizens.  In  October.  1830.  a  convention  of  persons  in- 
terested in  learning  of  a  higher  order  met  at  the  call  of  Albert  Galla- 
tin. They  made  him  chairman  of  the  meeting,  and  its  deliberations 
led  to  the  founding  of  the  University  of  New  York.  The  clergy  pre- 
vailed more  than  Gallatin  had  intended;  and  perhaps  as  a  reaction 
against  Columbia,  which  had  fallen  into  Episcopal  hands.  New  York 
University  was  as  thoroughly  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  Presby- 
terians, as  it  is  to  this  day.  In  1835  a  handsome  building  was  erected 
•on  Washington  Square,  causing  the  "  Stone-cutters'  Riot."  as  we  saw. 
but  now  no  more,  an  immense  mercantile  structure  occupying  its  site, 
while  a  number  of  edifices  are  being  put  up  on  Fordham  Heights. 
As  for  private  schools,  preparatory  for  college,  and  for  refining  the 
minds  of  young  ladies,  the  memory  of  a  few  of  these  abides.  There 
Avas  Professor  Charles  Anthon's  Crannnar  School  for  Boys,  on  Mur- 
ray Street,  near  Columbia  College.  There  w  as  a  famous  Institut  Fran- 
cais  on  Bank  Street,  kept  by  two  French  gentlemen.  Louis  and  Hya- 
cinth Peuquet.  who  taught  the  true  Parisian  accent  to  the  recalci- 
trant Yankee  tongue.  And  in  Barclay  Street  a  young  ladies'  school 
of  a  high  order  was  kept  by  Mrs.  Mary  O'Kill.  a  daughter  of  Sir  James 
-lay,  a  physician,  and  the  oldest  brother  of  John  Jay.  who  had  been 
knighted  for  his  industry  and  success  in  raising  money  for  Kings  Col- 
lege in  the  days  when  it  w  as  st  ill  so  called. 

When  Albert  Gallatin  came  to  New  York  in  18211  he  was  at  once  in- 
vited to  join  a  coterie  of  literary  people  who  had  been  meeting  to- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


323 


gether  for  social  and  intellectual  purposes  since  1827.  The  number 
was  limited  to  twelve,  so  as  to  secure  perfectly  congenial  companion- 
ship, which  larger  numbers  do  not  always  permit.  They  called  them- 
selves the  "  Club  "  without  further  designation,  aud  amoug  its  mem- 
bers were  those  representing  the  legal  and  medical  professions;  an 
Episcopal  and  a  Presbyterian  clergyman;  and  three  professors  of  Co- 
lumbia. One  of  this  choice  company  was  a  "  Mr.  Morse,"  President 
of  the  National  Academy  of  Design.  He  was  then  in  Europe,  on  his 
return  trip  from  which  he  was  to  have  the  talk  which  led  to  his  im- 
mortal invention,  as  will  be  told  in  the  next  chapter.  It  was  to  fill 
the  vacancy  caused  by  his  absence  in  Europe  that  Gallatin  was  in- 
vited to  join.  It  must  have  been  congenial  society  to  him,  and  he 
an  exceedingly  valuable  accession.  The  "  Club  "  met  once  a  week, 
had  no  officers,  was  without  formalities.  A  light  collation  was 
indulged  in  at  the  end,  and  the 
sessions  broke  up  before  eleven 
o'clock.  For  the  rest  of  human- 
ity entertainments  of  other 
kinds  were  multiplying.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  Park  Theater,  one 
was  built  in  the  Bowery  in  1826. 
In  1837  eight  theaters  were  busy 
catering  to  the  public  taste,  in 
various  ways,  more  or  less  ele- 
vating, as  is  true  of  every  period 
or  city.  Richmond  Hill  had 
been  converted  into  a  theater, 
and  at  its  opening  a  prize  was 
offered  to  the  author  of  the  best 
'  dedicatory  poem.  Gulian  C. 
Yerplanck  was  one  of  the  judges, 
and  he  was  selected  to  read  the 
successful  poem.  The  seal  of 
the  envelope  identifying  the  au- 
thor was  not  to  be  broken  until 
the  poem  had  been  read  in  the  hearing  of  the  people,  and  it  was 
to  be  opened  in  their  presence.  When  this  impressive  part  of 
the  exercises  was  reached,  it  appeared  that  the  prize-winner  was 
none  other  than  Fitz-Greene  Halleck.  Varick  and  Charlton 
streets  were  still  too  far  out  of  tOAvn  for  the  theater-going  public, 
hence  in  1842  Richmond  Hill  Theater  closed  its  doors.  In  this  year 
Park  Theater,  always  the  leading  play-house,  was  put  to  a  different 
use  on  St.  Valentine's  Day.  Dickens  had  come  to  America  on  his 
first  visit,  and  a  ball  was  given  in  his  honor  in  the  theater.  All  dur- 
ing the  evening,  in  the  intervals  id'  dancing,  representations  of  scenes 


324 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in  Dickens's  novels  were  displayed  upon  the  curtain.  .Mayor  liobert 
H.  Morris,  ex-Mayor  Philip  Hooe,  James  Watson  Webb,  and  William 
H.  Appleton,  of  the  publishing  tirm,  were  instrumental  in  organizing 
the  ball;  and  Washington  Irving  graced  with  his  presence  a  dinner 
given  to  the  novelist  a  few  days  later  by  more  than  two  hundred 
ladies  and  gentlemen.  It  is  well  known  that  Dickens  published  his 
impressions  of  his  visit  in  "  American  Notes,"  and  embodied  them 
also  in  the  novel  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit."  His  reflections  on  Yankee 
manners  were  not  very  complimentary,  and  what  was  to  be  found  of 
etiquette  in  rather  common  boarding  houses  was  unfairly  made  to  im- 
ply the  general  amenities  of  social  intercourse  in  New  York.  Yet  in 
his  "  Notes  "  Dickens  had  said  of  New  York :  "  The  tone  of  the  best 
society  in  the  city  is  like  that  of  Boston:  here  and  there  it  may  be  with 
a  greater  infusion  of  the  mercantile  spirit,  but  generally  polished  and 
refined,  and  always  most  hospitable.''  It  sounds  like  the  accounts  of 
travelers  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries:  New  York 
hospitality  conspicuous  from  beginning  to  end. 

In  the  place  of  the  houses  swept  away  by  the  fire  of  1835,  other  and 
greater  rose  within  a  brief  period,  but  none  could  exceed  the  glory  of 
the  Merchants*  Exchange.  Its  rebuilding  was  begun  in  1830,  but  it 
proceeded  very  slowly,  and  was  not  finished  till  late  in  1812.  Wher- 
ever a  wooden  structure  had  stood  in  the  way  of  the  fire,  one  of  brick 
or  stone  now  went  up.  In  other  sections  of  the  city  rose  noble  edi- 
fices. Washington  Hall  occupied  the  block  from  Chambers  to  Reade 
on  Broadway,  where  Stewart's  wholesale  store  stood  later.  On  al- 
most the  next  block,  opposite  the  Hospital,  stood  Masonic  Hall,  con- 
sidered handsomest  nexl  to  Merchants'  Exchange.  The  University 
Building,  further  out,  was  a  noble  specimen  of  architecture.  Wash- 
ington Square,  in  front  of  it.  was  used  as  a  parade  ground  for  the 
militia.  Union  Square  was  laid  out,  and  Gramercy  Park  was  fin- 
ished in  1840.  St.  • John's  Park  and  the  Battery  also  furnished  breath- 
ing places  for  the  people.  Omnibuses  ran  through  the  populated 
parts  of  the  city;  stages  started  from  the  City  Hall  Park,  on  east  or 
west  sides,  for  Harlem.  (Jreenwich.  Bloomingdale.  Horse  cars  began 
to  run  in  L831,  t  he  first  carrying  t  he  Mayor  and  <  Jommon  ( Jouncil.  The 
earliest  line  ran  from  Prince  Street  to  Fourteenth.  In  1837  the  tun- 
nel through  Murray  Bill,  on  Fourth  Avenue,  between  Thirty  fourth 
and  Forty-second  streets,  was  completed,  and  the  newspapers  and 
citizens  congratulated  themselves  that  they  had  the  most  wonderful 
achievement  of  engineering  skill  right  in  their  own  great  city.  A  sen- 
tence in  t  he  Mirror  of  t  hat  day  reminds  us  of  t  he  experience  on  emerg- 
ing from  the  West  Sliore  Railroad  tunnel  near  1 1  a  \  erst  ra  \v  :  "We 
know  of  nothing  in  any  city  of  the  Union  to  compare  with  the 
magnificent  view  that  opens  npou  yon  when  emerging  from  the 
upper  end   of  the  artificial   ravine  that    has  been   cloven  down 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


325 


through  the  solid  rocks  of  Mount  Prospect  " — i.e.,  Murray  Hill.  In 
1832  Harlem  was  gratified  in  having  one  of  its  streets  paved  and 
sidewalks  flagged.  This  favored  street  was  One  Hundred  and 
Twenty-ninth  Street,  the  pavement  extending  from  Third  to  Eighth 
avenues.  For  the  rest,  the  furthest  uptown  streets  paved  were  Clin- 
ton Place  (8th  Street),  on  the  west  side,  and  St.  Mark's  Place,  on  the 
east. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


INCREASING  THE  FACILITIES  OF  COMMUNICATION. 

F  to  Irving  we  owe  a  tutelary  genius  or  patron  saint  whose 
name  and  figure  instantly  call  up  a  personification  expres- 
sive of  our  city — viz.,  "  Father  Knickerbocker,'' — so  to  his 
happy  and  kindly  vein  of  humor  Ave  are  indebted  for 
another  term  that  serves  the  purposes  of  good-natured  badinage. 
One  of  the  papers  composing  "  Salmagundi."  published  conjointly 
by  Irving  and  Paulding,  intended  to  "  correct  the  town  and  cas- 
tigate the  age,"  was  entitled  "Chronicles  of  the  Kenowned  and 
Ancient  City  of  Gotham."  The  "three  wise  men  of  Gotham" 
had  already  been  immortalized  by  .Mother  (loose,  and  was  a  par- 
ticularly piquant  phrase  because  the  denizens  of  that  north-country 
parish  in  England  were  rather  more  naively  simple  in  their  mental 
make-up  than  those  of  most  other  parishes.  It  suited  the  humor  of  the 
two  friends  to  fix  upon  the  New  York  of  their  day  this  familiar  and 
expressive  title  of  <  lot  ham,  and  it  has  clung  to  our  city  ever  since. 

If  Gotham  could  afford  to  laugh  at  a  joke  against  itself  in  1807.  it 
had  still  more  reason  to  take  humorously  any  reflections  upon  its 
shortcomings  or  failings  when  it  had  become  assured  in  its  position 
as  by  far  and  away  the  chief  city  of  the  Union.  Its  natural  advan- 
tages of  situation,  immensely  assisted  by  the  invention  of  the  steam- 
boat and  the  enterprise  that  had  pierced  the  interior  with  canals  as 
the  highways  of  commerce,  had  compelled  this  gratifying  result.  Be- 
yond even  the  promise  that  was  furnished  by  such  favorable  condi- 
tions was  the  advance  of  the  city  to  greatness  in  size  and  pre-eminence 
in  station,  when  there  were  added  to  these  then  so  wonderful  facilities 
of  communication  those  marvelous  annihilators  of  time  and  space,  the 
telegraph  and  railroad.  The  era  of  their  application  to  the  practical 
business  of  life  we  have  now  reached,  although  to  an  earlier  period 
may  belong  their  invention  and  exhibition  as  experiments  merely. 

It  is  difficult  to  transport  ourselves  back  to  a  generation  that  knew 
not  the  steamboat  or  the  railroad  or  the  telegraph.  Yet  our  fathers 
or  grandfathers  were  of  that  generation.  These  persons,  in  their 
youth,  or  even  maturer  years,  were,  so  far  as  concerns  the  mechanical, 
industrial,  and  scientific  progress  of  the  world,  actually  nearer  to  a 
date  even  centuries  before  their  birth  than  they  were  to  our  day.  They 
then  had  to  travel  the  sea  by  ships  under  sail,  depending  upon  fitful 
winds;  or  the  land  by  the  lumbering  stage,  or  private  carriage,  or  on 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


327 


horseback;  just  as  men  did 
at  the  beginning-  of  the  eigh- 
teenth, or  sixteenth,  or  in- 
deed the  first  century.  How 
great  an  alteration  has  been 
realized    during    the  short 
period  of  these  later  decades 
of  the  present  century,  in 
the  Arery  face  of  the  world,  in 
the  intercourse  of  nations,  in 
the  conduct  of  business,  in 
the  comforts  of  existence,  in 
consequence  of  the  habits  of 
living    produced    by  these 
modern    means    of  locomo- 
tion and  communication,  to 
speak  of  nothing  else;  and 
how  vast  is  the  distance,  in 
these  respects,  between  our 
grandfathers     and  fathers 
and    ourselves!     To  quote 
from   one   of   Prof.  Fiske's 
philosophical    works:    "  We 
scarcely  need  to  be  reminded 
that  all  the  advances  made 
in  locomotion,  from  the  days 
of  Nebuchadnezzar  to  those 
of  Andrew  Jackson,  were  as 
nothing    compared    to  the 
change     that     has  been 
wrought  within  a  few  years 
by  the  introduction  of  rail- 
roads.   In  these  times  wdien 
Puck  has  fulfilled  his  boast 
and  put  a  girdle  about  the 
earth  in  forty  minutes,  we  are 
not  yet,  perhaps,  in  danger  of 
forgetting  that  a  century  has 
not   elapsed   since   he  who 
caught  the  lightning  upon  his 
kite  was  laid  in  the  grave. 
Yet  the  lesson  of  these  facts, 
as   well   as   of   the  grand- 
mothers spinning  wheel  that 
stands  by  the  parlor  fireside, 
is  well  to  bear  in  mind.  The 


328 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


change  therein  exemplified  siiiee  Penelope  plied  her  distaff,  is  far  less 
than  that  which  has  occurred  within  the  memory  of  living  men."  And 
he  also  calls  attention  to  the  circumstance  that  by  means  of  the  rail- 
road and  telegraph,  this  great  Republic,  stretching  from  ocean  To 
ocean,  and  from  Canada  to  Mexico  and  its  (Julf,  has  been  rendered  as 
compact  for  purposes  of  intercommunication,  and  therefore  also  of 
management  and  control,  as  the  tiny  Republic  of  Switzerland  or  the 
smallest  monarchy  of  Europe.  We  might  have  fallen  to  pieces  from 
the  overburdening  greatness  of  our  territorial  extent  had  not  the  tele- 
graph and  railroad  appeared,  just  as  we  were  most  expanding,  to  keep 
all  our  extremities  well  in  hand. 

Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  a  native  of  Massachusel t s,  came  to  live  in  New 
York  City  in  1815,  just  after  the  close  of  the  war.  lie  was  a  young 
artist,  only  twenty-four  years  of  age.  an  enthusiast  in  his  profession, 
so  t  hat  he  was  not  only  content  to  put  his  ideals  on  canvas,  but  he  was 
bound  to  educate  a  public  and  encourage  other  artists  in  their  work. 
He  thus  became  the  founder  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design,  and 
its  President.  As  we  learned  in  the  previous  chapter,  in  1829  he  went 
to  Europe  in  the  pursuit  of  his  art.  <  Juriously  enough,  like  that  other 
great  inventor,  1  niton,  he  was  not  only  an  artist,  but  an  enthusiast  in 
science,  and  thus  he  came  to  tread  a  path  similar  to  that  of  his  prede- 
cessor. As  Fulton  lived  till  1817,  it  is  possible  that  the  two  men.  of 
the  same  profession,  and  with  similar  tastes  apart  from  their  profes- 
sion, became  well  acquainted.  It  is  not  known  whether  Morse  inter- 
ested himself  in  any  of  the  scientific  investigations  or  discoveries  of 
the  day  while  in  Europe.  In  1832  he  returned  to  America,  and  during 
the  trip  across  the  ocean  met  a  gentleman  who  had  seen  much  of  the 
recent  experiments  conducted  in  Paris  with  the  electro-magnet.  He 
described  its  operations  to  Morse1,  who  inquired  as  to  the  length  of 
time  it  took  for  electricity  to  pass  from  one  point  to  another.  The 
gentleman  replied  that  no  matter  how  long  the  wires  along  which  the 
electric  fluid  was  obliged  to  pass,  the  transmission  seemed  to  be  in- 
stantaneous, as  we  now  know  it  must  be.  traveling  as  it  does  with  the 
rapidity  of  light.  These  two  circumstances:  the  immense  rapidity  of 
eleel  ricity,  making  its  effects  at  distant  points  practically  instantane- 
ous, and  the  fact  that  instantly  upon  its  introduction  into  a  coil  of 
wire  wound  around  an  iron  bar  it  would  produce  magnet  ic  at  t  racl ion. 
and  instantly  upon  its  cessation  the  attracted  objects  would  be  re- 
leased, led  the  inventive  mind  of  Morse  to  the  construction  of  the 
electric  telegraph.  On  his  return  to  New  York,  he  at  once  began  ex- 
perimenting in  his  studio.  As  we  look  at  the  instrument  and  devices 
involved,  it  does  not  seem  as  if  many  years  should  have  been  acces- 
sary to  perfect  his  scheme.  Hut  it  is  with  such  matters  always  as 
with  Columbus  and  his  problem  of  making  the  egg  stand  on  end. 
A  fter  it  has  been  accomplished  it  is  very  easy  to  go  and  repeat  it  :  1  he 
Simpler  the  device  tlu^  longer  it  takes  to  hit  upon  it;  and  then  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


329 


thing  comes  at  last  by  a  happy  inspiration  after  all,  that  seems  born 
of  the  instant,  but  really  has  all  the  previous  thinking  back  of  it,  and 
would  not  have  been  seen  to  be  so  happy  otherwise.  The  brush  and 
the  palette  received  but  little  attention  from  our  artist  now,  and  the 
purse  grew  correspondingly  slim.  But  he  was  possessed  by  one  idea, 
and  he  pursued  it  to  the  end, though  grim  poverty  looked  in  at  the  win- 
dow, and  the  wolf  was  often  very  near  the  door.  In  1835,  after  three 
weary  years,  Morse  had  perfected  his  instrument;  had  conceived  his 
alphabetical  system  of  dots  and  dashes;  decided  upon  the  means  of 
producing  the  electricity,  and  of  conveying  it  from  place  to  place.  He 
was  now  ready  to  exhibit  its  operation  to  those  most  likely  to  appre- 
ciate and  understand  his  labors.  Even  yet  many  things  remained  to 
be  corrected,  and  it  was  two  years  longer  before  he  ventured  upon  a 
public  exhibition.  The  process  and  mechanism  were  so  simple  that 
every  one  in  the  audience  could  readily  be  made  to  comprehend  their 
working.  Taking  advantage  of  the  effect  of  electricity  upon  iron  in 
making  it  magnetic,  one  end  of  a  lever  was  placed  over  the  electro- 
magnet, at  the  other  end  of  which  was  a  pencil  moving  against  a  strip 
of  paper.  When  the  electricity  passed  into  the  coil  of  wire  around 
the  iron,  the  little  lever  was  drawn  down  at  one  end  and  up  at  the 
other  against  the  paper.  The  paper  was  made  to  move  at  a  uniform 
rate  by  clockwork.  Did  the  electricity  pass  into  the  magnet  for  one 
instant,  only  a  dot  was  made  on  the  paper:  was  it  held  there  longer, 
a  line  or  dash  was  the  result,  according  to  the  length  of  time  occupied. 
These  dots  and  lines  and  dashes  constituted  a  system  of  letters.  By 
means  of  a  little  key  with  a  spring,  the  electricity  could  be  made  to 
pass  into  the  coil,  or  released,  according  as  one  effected  or  broke  <  n- 
nection  with  the  source  of  the  fluid.  As  in  the  case  of  other  inven- 
tions, however,  ignorance  and  incredulity  long  barred  the  way  to- 
ward its  useful  application  to  the  needs  of  business  and  intercourse. 
Not  till  1843  could  there  be  secured  any  legislative  action  for  one  of 
the  greatest  inventions  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  Then  Mr.  Fer- 
ris, of  New  York,  offered  in  Congress  the  following:  "  Resolved,  That 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  be  instructed  to  inquire  into  the 
expediency  of  appropriating  |30,000,  to  enable  Professor  Morse  to  es- 
tablish a  line  of  telegraph  between  Washington  and  Baltimore."  The 
inventor  had  received  permission  to  fit  up  his  instruments  and  wires 
in  the  Capitol,  so  that  Congress  might  receive  a  practical  demonstra- 
tion of  the  feasibility  of  his  design.  It  came  to  a  tie  vote  in  the  com- 
mittee, but  fortunately  Governor  Wallace,  of  Indiana,  upon  whom  the 
deciding  vote  would  fall,  determined  to  investigate  the  matter,  and 
asked  permission  to  retire  for  that  purpose.  He  came  back  fully 
satisfied  and  voted  in  favor  of  a  report  recommending  the  grant.  But 
on  the  last  day  of  the  session  of  Congress  this  bill  was  still  the  one 
hundred  and  twentieth  on  the  docket.  It  may  be  imagined  with  what 
an  agony  of  suspense  Morse  watched  the  tedious  progress  through 


330 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


this  heap  of  petty  and  uninteresting  legislation.  He  could  not  en- 
dure it,  and  at  a  late  hour  went  to  his  boarding  house,  not  in  the  least 
expecting  that  his  bill  would  be  reached,  and  preparing  to  Wait  an- 
other long  year  for  the  consummation  of  his  hopes.  But  the  next 
morning  he  was  greeted  by  a  message  delivered  in  person  by  .Miss 
Ellsworth,  the  daughter  of  the  Commissioner  of  Patents,  telling  him 
that  his  bill  had  been  passed.    As  a  reward  she  was  promised  that 

she  should  be  given  the  choice  of  the 
first  message  to  be  sent  over  the  line 
when  completed.    A  line  of  wires  on 
poles  was  erected  from  Washington 
to  Baltimore.   It  was  some  time,  how- 
ever, before  this  comparatively  inex- 
pensive device  was  fixed  on  and  ex- 
periments   were    made    and  much 
money  spent  on  other  plans.    One  of 
these   was   to  insert 
the  wires   in  leaden 
tubes,  insulated  by  a 
covering     of  cotton 
saturated  in  shellac, 
j  the  tubes  to  be  laid 

under  ground.  In  the 
month  of  May,  1844, 
the  line  was  ready  for 
the  fi  r  s  t  message. 
Miss  Ellsworth  was 
summoned  to  give  her 
selection,  which  read, 
in  pious  consideration 
of  t  h  e  providences 
that  had  carried  the 
great  invention  to 
success,  as  well  in 
prayerful  expectation 
of  the  great  benefits 
t<>  be  derived  from  it 
for  humanity:  "  What 
if  which  is  now  preserved  by  the 


FIRST  TELEGRAPH  LINK 
CONSTRUCTED. 


hath  God  wrought."  the  original  oi 
Bart  ford  Historical  Society,  Connecticut. 

10 ven  yet  the  lino  between  two  cities  like  Washington  and  Balti- 
more was  only  an  experiment,  without  great  utility,  without  special 
bearing  upon  (he  affairs  of  men.  11  needed  some  signal  illustration 
of  its  marvelous  capacity  for  facilitating  communication  between  dis- 
tant points.  Providence  again  favored  the  invention  with  just  such 
an  illustration,  one  which,  so  to  speak,  flashed  it  at  once  in  the  face 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


331 


of  the  whole  nation.  It  was  the  year  of  a  Presidential  election,  and  a 
nominating  convention  of  the  Democratic  party  was  in  session  at 
Baltimore.  James  Polk  had  been  put  in  nomination  for  President, 
and  Senator  Silas  Wright,  of  New  York,  for  Vice-President.  No  one 
thought  of  sending  a  dispatch  to  Wright  at  Washington  to  inquire 
whether  he  would  accept  the  nomination.  But  Morse,  at  the  ter- 
minus of  his  telegraph  wire  in  the  Supreme  Court-room  at  the  Capi- 
tol, learned  the  news  from  his  operators  at  Baltimore.  He  at  once 
sent  word  of  it  to  the  Senator.  Wright  did  not  desire  the  honor  de- 
signed for  him,  and  immediately  sent  back  a  dispatch  per  telegraph 
declining  the  nomination.  The  dispatch  was  announced  to  the  con- 
vention. As  the  members  did  not  believe  that  the  Senator  had  been 
communicated  with  on  the  subjectand  had  sent  backhis  declination  in 
so  short  a  time,  they  appointed  a  committee  to  wait  on  him  to  ascertain 
the  correctness  of  the  rumor,  and  incidentally  the  genuineness  of  the 
work  of  the  telegraph.  The  report  of  the  committee  furnished  the 
evidence  of  the  value  and  practical  usefulness  of  the  telegraph,  and 
all  the  country  soon  knew  the  remarkable  circumstance.  Lines  of 
telegraph  now  went  up  everywhere.  In  1846  the  Washington,  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York  line  connected  our  city  with  the  next  impor- 
tant commercial  center  in  the  Union,  and  with  the  capital.  Next 
lines  went  from  New  York  to  Boston,  to  Albany,  and  Buffalo.  Within 
seven  years  fifty  different  companies  were  doing  business,  which  seri- 
ously hampered  instead  of  facilitating  the  use  of  the  new  invention, 
for  the  companies  operated  in  hostile  rivalry,  and  dispatches  had  to 
be  constantly  recopied  and  retransmitted  between  distant  points. 
This  led  to  consolidation  of  companies  in  various  sections,  until  finalh 
the  Western  Union  comprised  all  the  companies  in  the  United  States. 

"  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too,"  had  been  the  watchword  of  the  cam- 
paign of  1840,  when  Harrison  had  been  elected.  And  the  "  Tyler 
too  "  had  received  a  different  meaning  from  that  intended  when  he 
occupied  the  Presidential  chair,  after  Harrison's  brief  occupancy  of 
a  month.  The  campaign  cry  in  1844  had  been  "  Polk  and  Texas," 
and  Polk's  election  meant  war  with  Mexico  for  the  recognition 
of  the  independence  of  Texas  and  for  its  annexation  to  the  United 
States.  The  scenes  of  the  war  were  far  away  from  New  York  City, 
but  Generals  Worth  and  Wool  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  them,  and 
they  were  sons  of  the  metropolis,  whom  the  metropolis  has  since  de- 
lighted to  honor.  Yet  there  were  some  who  had  their  eyes  wide  open 
to  the  more  sinister  bearings  of  the  war.  They  sawr  the  ulterior  pur- 
pose of  the  Southern  statesmen  or  politicians,  who  desired  an  exten- 
sion of  territory  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  which  the  statesmen  of  the 
North  had  forever  barred  against  extension  northward,  even  in  the 
great  western  territories.  And  it  is  to  the  honor  of  Albert  Gallatin, 
himself  of  the  party  that  ruled  the  South,  himself  an  adherent  of  Jef- 
ferson and  Jackson,  each  in  their  day,  and  thus  a  Democrat  of  the 


332 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


earliest  type,  that  in  his  last  days  he  earnestly  deprecated  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas.  He  was  already  eighty-live  years  old  when  the  war 
broke  out,  but  he  lived  till  after  its  close,  and  till  he  had  seen  the 
marvelous  good  fortune  of  the  Republic  in  acquiring  California  before 
the  discovery  of  gold,  which  so  powerfully  contributed  toward 
establishing  a  well  populated  outpost  on  the  shores  of  the  Pa- 
cific. As  his  years  grew  he  still  retained  his  faculties,  his  vivacity, 
and  his  interest  in  social,  literary,  scientific,  financial,  and  political 
matters.  One  after  another  contemporary  dropped  away  from  his 
side,  and  at  last,  in  the  early  summer  of  1841),  Mrs.  (la  11a tin  died.  This 
proved  the  finishing  blow  to  a  vitality  of  remarkable  vigor.  He  now 
failed  rapidly.  His  daughter  Frances  had  married  a  son  of  General 
Ebenezer  Stevens,  and  they  lived  upon  the  latter's  country-seat  at  As- 
toria, L.  I.,  known  by  the  name  of  Mount  Bonaparte.  Hither  the  vet- 
eran statesman  and  financier  was  taken  in  the  hope  that  the  whole- 
some air  of  the  vicinity  might  have  a  salutary  effect  upon  him.  But 
it  was  not  so  much  his  health  as  his  spirits  that  were  broken,  and  on 
Sunday,  August  12,  1849,  he  died  in  his  devoted  daughter's  arms. 
There  was  no  public  demonstration  at  his  funeral,  for  the  city  was 
then  in  the  midst  of  the  throes  of  another  cholera  visitation. 

Just  before  the  war  with  Mexico  New  York  experienced  another  of 
those  calamities  in  which  she  had  managed  to  excel  most  of  the  cities 
of  the  Union  up  to  that  date.  In  1845,  or  in  the  tenth  year  after  the 
great  fire  noticed  in  the  last  chapter,  the  fire-fiend  claimed  her  once 
more  as  a  victim,  having  left  her  since  that  time  comparatively  alone, 
never  going  beyond  the  matter  of  a  house  or  two,  or  half  a  block.  The 
fire  of  1845  occurred  in  the  summer  time,  on  July  19,  and.  besides,  the 
Croton  water  works,  put  ample  supplies  of  the  extinguishing  fluid  at 
the  disposal  of  the  "  fire-laddies,"  and  so  far  forth  the  conditions  were 
infinitely  more  favorable  than  those  of  the  winter  of  1835.  But  the 
record  of  destruction  was  still  a  very  bad  one.  This  was  owing  to  the 
origin  of  the  Are.  There  was  a  tremendous  explosion  in  a  building 
on  New  Street,  near  Wall.  In  this  had  been  stored  a  quantity  of  salt- 
petre, and  it  was  presumed,  and  entirely  natural,  too,  to  suppose,  that 
this  substance  had  exploded,  although  afterward  there  were  learned 
discussions  among  the  scientific  denizens  of  the  town,  occasioning 
some  irreverent  Lay  merriment,  whet  her  saltpetre  would  explode.  The 
exjdosion,  whatever  caused  it.  shook  that  end  of  the  tow  n  so  that  sev- 
eral houses  near  the  one  blown  up  were  shattered,  and  windows  were 
broken  in  houses  as  far  away  as  Greenwich  Street.  The  tire  fortu- 
nately did  not  cover  any  of  the  ground  devastated  ten  years  before, 
but  followed  a  course  closely  parallel  to  it.  It  burned  on  either  side 
of  New  Street,  attacking  houses  on  the  east  side  of  Broadway  and  the 
west  side  of  Broad  Street.  The  other  tire  had  only  barely  touched 
some  houses  on  the  east  side  of  the  latter  street.  Thus  traveling,  it 
went  as  far  as  Stone  Street,  between  Whitehall  and  Broad,  which,  in 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


333 


the  other  tire,  had  suffered  from  Broad  to  William.  Altogether  three 
hundred  and  forty-five  houses  were  destroyed,  and  from  six  to  ten 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  property.  It  was  a  severe  blow,  but  not  so 
crushing  as  the  former  one,  and  the  city  had  had  ten  years  in  which 
to  grow  larger  and  richer.  Merchants  and  insurance  companies,  in- 
deed, staggered  under  the  blow,  and  some  of  them  beyond  the  power 
of  recovery.  But  pluck  and  courage  soon  made  the  fable  of  the  Phoe- 
nix applicable  to  this  burned  district  as  to  the  other.  From  Mayor 
Philip  Hone's  invaluable  diary  we  get  the  somewhat  thrilling  and 
realistic  information  that 
soon  building  operations 
were  going  on  at  a  lively 
rate  where  the  tire  had 
lately  done  its  work,  so 
soon,  indeed,  that  the 
builders  b  u  r  n  e  d  their 
hands  in  removing  the 
rubbish  to  make  way  for 
the  laying  of  the  new  foun- 
dations. 

\Ye  have  been  forced  to 
repeat  the  story  of  a  tire; 
we  are  also  compelled  to 
tell  a  g  a  i  n  of  another 
cholera  visitation,  seven- 
teen years  after  the  former. 
In  1819  New  York  once 
more  lay  prostrate  before 
the  "  Angel  of  Death."  But 
it  was  not  alone  in  its  af- 
fliction. The  plague  struck 
the  United  States  as  early  as  December,  1848,  when  it  broke  out 
in  New  Orleans,  decimating  the  inhabitants  that  could  not  flee 
the  danger.  In  Boston  six  hundred  died  from  June  to  September;  but 
this  was  not  a  circumstance  compared  with  the  death  rate  in  St.  Louis 
and  Cincinnati,  each  of  which  cities  counted  six  thousand  dead  from 
the  disease.  Philadelphia,  too,  was  struck  with  terror  by  the  fright- 
ful mortality  within  its  precincts.  On  May  11  the  cholera  made  its 
first  appearance  in  New  York,  and  in  a  spot  calculated  to  invite  its 
readiest  execution — the  Five  Points.  During  the  week  ending  July 
21  more  than  seven  hundred  deaths  occurred,  the  mortality  that  week 
being  the  greatest  that  had  ever  been  experienced  in  any  city  in  the 
United  States.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  height  of  the  epidemic 
of  1832  was  also  reached  on  July  21.  Prompt  and  efficient  measures 
were  taken  by  the  authorities  to  check  the  disease,  as  well  as  to  allevi- 
ate the  sufferings  and  promote  the  recovery  of  those  who  were  strick- 


GENERAL  WORTH. 


33-4 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


en  with  it.  On  the  corner  of  Monroe  (Oak)  and  Pearl  streets,  not  far 
from  the  starting  point  of  the  pestilence,  a  three-story  building  of  am- 
ple size  w  as  converted  into  a  hospital  for  cholera  patients  exclusively. 
A  Sanitary  Commission  was  appointed,  with  three  consulting  physi- 
cians, who  daily  published  in  the  papers  directions  for  preventing  the 
spread  of  the  disease,  especially  insisting  upon  cleanliness  of  persons, 
premises,  and  streets.  Still  the  scourge  spread,  claiming  hundreds  of 
victims  every  day.  Finally  a  proposition  came  from  the  Hoard  of 
Health  that,  as  the  schools  were  not  occupied  during  the  vacation 
weeks,  they  be  utilized  as  hospitals.  It  was  taking  an  exceedingly 
great  risk  to  expose  these  buildings  to  the  infection  which  might 
linger  in  them,  and  thus  introduce  germs  of  the  disease  into  the 
systems  of  the  children  against  another  summer.  The  citizens 
objected  strongly,  and  public  meetings  were  held  to  protest 
against  the  scheme.  But  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  the  Hoard 
of  Health  carried  out  the  project,  one  that  in  the  present  day 
our  Board  would  be  the  farthest  from  conceiving  themselves, 
or  allowing  others  to  entertain.  Nineteen  hundred  patients  were 
accommodated  in  the  school-houses,  of  which  over  a  thousand 
died,  a  much  larger  proportion  than  in  1832.  when,  of  over  two 
thousand  patients  treated  in  hospital,  only  about  eight  hundred 
and  fifty  died.  So  far  as  the  number  of  deaths  could  be  calculated,  at 
least  three  thousand  died  of  the  plague  in  New  York,  but  many  more 
may  have  succumbed  of  whom  no  notice  was  given  to  the  public. 

A  New  York  inventor  had  been  the  tirsi  to  send  a  steamboat  to  sea: 
for  .John  Stevens  and  his  son  Robert  L.  were  forced  by  Fulton's  pri- 
ority on  New  York  waters  to  send  their  vessels  around  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Delaware.  But  their  structure  w  as  not  intended  for  an  ocean 
steamship.  They  had,  however,  already  hit  upon  the  device  that  was 
to  make  ocean  travel  by  sea  possible  to  the  degree  of  perfection  that 
now  prevails,  for  they  had  applied  the  idea  of  the  screw  to  propulsion 
in  the  water.  This  was  laid  aside  while  machinery  of  another  kind 
was  so  much  the  vogue  and  doing  such  good  work.  R.  L.  Stevens  es- 
pecially directed  his  inventive  genius  to  improve  the  paddle-wheel 
steamboat,  and  to  him  was  owing  the  introduction  of  the  walking- 
beam,  procuring  equal  results  of  power  with  a  lower  pressure  of 
steam.  Just  as  the  era  of  steamships  was  opening,  there  was  a  last 
burst  of  remarkable  capacity  displayed  by  the  old  method  of  sailing- 
ships.  These  feats  were  performed  by  the  famous  clipper-ships, 
whose  construction  must  be  placed  entirely  to  the  credit  of  Yankee 
genius,  and  many  of  which  were  built  upon  the  shipyards  of  New 
York.  The  establishment  of  several  packet  -lines  bet  ween  Liverpool 
and  New  York  at  an  earlier  period  has  already  been  noticed;  these 
packets  were  calculated  to  accomplish  the  trip  in  about  four  weeks. 

and  as  the  schedule  <»r  sailing  advertised  was  based  on  that  interval, 
it  must  have  been  one  that  could  be  depended  on  pretty  regularly  an- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


335 


der  ordinary  circumstances.  In  1840  clipper-ships  began  to  be  built 
at  Baltimore,  but  Xew  York  soon  became  the  center  of  their  construc- 
tion. These  vessels  were  built  for  speed  as  a  primary  consideration. 
The  travel  to  Europe,  encouraged  by  the  packets,  warranted  the  build- 
ing of  ships  that  might  do  less  in  the  way  of  cargo,  and  be  mainly  pas- 
senger ships.  Hence  the  lines  of  the  keel  were  adapted  to  secure 
speed  in  movement  through  the  water,  the  length  being  greater  in 
proportion  to  the  width  than  formerly.  The  bow  was  made  sharp, 
and  the  shape  astern  was  such  as  to  derive*  as  much  propulsion  as 
possible  from  the  closing  of  the  waters  which  the  prow  had  divided. 
The  results  were  gratifying  and  astonishing  in  the  extreme.  The 
Samuel  Eussell.  built  in  1843  at  Brown  &  Bell's  yard  (successors  of 
Brown  Brothers),  foot  of  East  Houston  Street,  for  A.  A.  Low,  the 
father  of  President  Seth  Low,  was  one  of  the  earliest  in  the  service, 
and  registered  940  tons.  Clippers  of  that  size,  however,  were  found 
to  be  too  small,  not  merely  for  carrying  of  cargo,  but  on  the  ground  of 
safety,  getting  strained  too  severely  in  rough  weather.  Hence  about 
1850  clippers  were  made  to  register  from  over  eleven  hundred  to  more 
than  two  thousand  tons.  The  Surprise,  owned  by  A.  A.  Low  & 
Brother,  of  nearly  two  thousand  tons,  attained  a  speed  that  was  phe- 
nomenal. She  made  the  journey  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  in 
ninety-six  days,  and  one  day  covered  a  distance  of  284  miles,  a  record 
which  some  of  the  slower  lines  of  steamers  to  Europe  to-day  hardly 
ever  surpass.  Her  journey  was  continued  from  San  Francisco  arross 
the  Pacific  to  Canton,  where  a  cargo  of  tea  was  shipped  for  London, 
the  English  merchants  gladly  paying  two  or  three  pounds  more 
freight  per  ton  to  her  than  they  did  to  their  own  ships.  Taking  a 
cargo  at  Liverpool  for  New  York,  it  was  found  that  the  trip  had  paid 
her  cost,  her  running  expenses,  and  a  profit  over  and  above  all  this  of 
f50,000.  No  wonder  that  the  large  importers  and  their  captains 
made  fortunes  rapidly.  But  we  are  not  yet  done  with  the  records  of 
speed  that  these  clippers  made.  The  distance  between  Liverpool  and 
New  York  was  often  under  favorable  circumstances  covered  in  four- 
teen or  fifteen,  or  at  most  sixteen,  days.  An  article  in  Harper's  Maga- 
zine on  this  subject  some  years  ago  gave  a  number  of  instances  that 
are  almost  incredible.  One  vessel,  which  had  to  run  into  Halifax  fur 
some  reason,  when  it  was  enabled  to  proceed  made  up  for  lost  time  by 
running  thence  to  Liverpool  in  six  days.  Nay,  the  clippers  could  beat 
the  contemporary  steamships  under  favorable  circumstances.  The 
Dreadnaught,  built  in  1853  for  Edwin  1).  Morgan,  was  a  famous  clip- 
per. Nothing  could  catch  up  with  her  when  the  wind  was  in  the  right 
quarter.  On  the  return  from  her  first  trip  to  Liverpool,  in  1854,  an 
illustration  was  offered  of  her  sailing  or  traveling  possibilities,  as  com- 
pared with  steamships.  The  day  before  the  one  set  for  her  departure, 
the  Cunard  steamer  Canada  started  on  her  voyage  to  Boston,  a  port  at 
least  two  hundred  miles  nearer  than  New  York.    Yet  the  Dread- 


336 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


naught  arrived  ;it  Sandy  Hook  a  day  before  the  Canada  reached  Bos- 
ton! No  wonder  that  this  pre-eminence  in  sailing  qualities  gave.a 
great  impetus  to  the  commerce  of  New  York.  It  made  ship-building 
also  one  of  the  giant  industries  of  the  country.  All  along  the  East 
Eliver  shore  shipyards  stretched,  from  below  and  around  Corlear's 
Hook  up  to  10th  Street.  And  the  results  attained  were  not  only  due 
to  ingenuity  displayed  in  laying  out  the  keels  and  hulls,  for  Yankee 
genius  applied  itself  as  well  to  the  sails,  and  contrived  methods  of 
getting  the  most  out  of  the  winds.  It  was  about  this  time,  1851,  t  hat 
the  schooner  yachl  America  astonished  the  Englishmen  who  had 
pitted  their  crack  sailers  against  her  in  the  race  for  the  "  Queen's 
Cup."    The  course  was  around  the  Isle  of  Wight;  at  hist  even  in  a 


CLIPPEB   SHIP  DKEADNAUGHT. 


light  wind  the  America  passed  by  all  her  rivals;  but  when  the  breeze 
freshened  she  left  them  far  behind  and  crossed  the  finish  line  eight 
miles  ahead  of  her  next  competitor.  It  Avas  remarked  as  ;i  peculiarity 
that  her  sails  (fore-and-aft.  of  course,  being  a  schooner)  seemed  per- 
fectly flat  against  the  wind,  with  no  bagging  of  any  sort.  This  al- 
lowed whatever  wind  was  not  necessary  for  pushing,  to  slide  oil'  the 
sail,  instead  of  causing  a  resistance  in  get  ting  out  of  the  "  bag."  The 
"  (Queen's  Cup."  w  hich  she  then  carried  to  America,  becoming  the 
"  America  Cup,"  has  been  raced  for  nine  times  since,  the  last  unsuc- 
cessful at  tempi  to  regain  it  for  England  having  been  made  in  1895. 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  this  wonderful  excellence  in  construction 
and  sailing  qualities,  the  clipper  was  bound  to  be  superseded  in  the 
long  ran  by  the  steamship.    And  during  the  best  days  of  the  clipper 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


337 


the  steamship  had  already  begun  its  career.  Marvelous  speed  might 
be  attained  by  a  sailing  vessel,  but  adverse  winds  and  waves,  and 
tedious  calms,  could  not  be  overcome  by  them,  and  left  them  helpless 
in  their  beauty  and  their  strength.  A  power  independent  of  the  ele- 
ments, an  element  in  itself,  under  the  perfect  control  of  man,  was  cer- 
tain to  commend  itself  to  a  progressive  age  as  the  better  servant,  with 
more  reliable  results.  And  finally,  not  only  has  this  power  of  steam 
commended  itself  for  the  certainty  or  steadiness  of  its  operation,  but 
quite  as  much  for  the  rapidity  of  movement  which  it  can  impart  to 
ships  five  times  and  six  times  the  size  of  the  old  clippers.  These  ves- 
sels of  10,000  or  12,000  tons'  burden,  steam  now  drives  through  the 
water  at  the  rate  of  over  five  hundred  miles  per  day,  so  that  the  ocean 
journey  to  England  requires  less  time  now  than  did  a  trip  to  Albany 
before  Fulton's  day. 

The  honor  of  first  demonstrating  the  feasibility  of  navigating  the 
ocean  by  steam  belongs  to  America,  as  it  properly  should.  In  1818 
was  begun  upon  one  of  the  shipyards  of  this  city  the  construction  of 
the  Savannah,  of  three  hundred  tons  burden,  fitted  with  steam  en- 
gines as  an  aid  to  sailing.  In  March,  1819,  she  sailed  for  Savannah, 
Georgia,  where  she  was  owned.  On  May  26,  she  left  Savannah  direct 
for  Liverpool,  accomplishing  the  trip  in  twenty-two  days.  As  she 
passed  the  signal  station  near  Cork  she  was  reported  to  be  a  ship  on 
fire.  At  Liverpool  she  created  a  great  sensation,  being  visited  by  per- 
sons from  London  connected  with  the  Court.  It  was  suspected  by 
some  that  her  errand  was  the  rescue  of  Napoleon  from  St.  Helena, 
and  she  was  closely  watched  accordingly.  From  Liverpool  the  Sa- 
vannah went  to  Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  and  St.  Petersburg,  her  cap- 
tain, Stevens  Rogers,  receiving  marked  attention  from  the  sovereigns 
of  those  countries.  Touching  at  Arendal,  Norway,  she  thence  started 
for  home,  reaching  Savannah  in  twenty-five  days.  In  1829  the  Dutch 
nation  entered  the  field  of  ocean  navigation  by  steam,  the  Curacao, 
owned  in  Holland,  making  regular  trips  between  the  home  country 
and  her  possessions  in  the  West  Indies,  a  still  more  convincing  proof 
of  the  feasibility  of  the  new  method.  But  it  was  eight  years  more  be- 
fore England  entered  upon  the  undertaking  which  she  has  carried  to 
such  perfection  since.  The  first  English  steamship  distinctly  built  as 
such  was  the  Great  Western,  intended  for  the  American  service.  She 
sailed  from  Bristol  in  April,  1838,  but  arrived  in  New  York  three  days 
after  another  ship,  the  Sirius,  from  Liverpool,  which  was  a  sailing 
vessel  fitted  up  as  a  steamer.  On  April  23  and  26,  1838,  the  people  of 
New  York  were  treated  to  the  sight  of  the  arrival  of  these  rare  ves- 
sels, and  soon  they  were  favored  with  two  regular  lines  of  steamers  to 
Liverpool,  the  Collins  and  Cunard  lines,  which  were  established  in 
1841.  The  speed  these  steamers  attained  was  about  two  hundred 
and  ten  miles  per  diem,  and  the  regular  time  made  was  at  most  six- 
teen days.   The  Collins  Line  was  unfortunate.   Two  of  their  steamers 


338 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


were  lost  at  sea.  Iu  1854  the  Arctic  was  sunk  almost  instantly  in  col- 
lision with  another  steamer  in  a  fog  off  New  foundland,  and  nearly 
every  one  on  board  perished,  all  of  Mr.  Collins's  family  included.  The 
profits  were  not  sufficient  to  counteract  these  losses,  hence  in  1858  the 
line  was  discontinued.  As  is  well  known,  the  Canard  Line  has  re- 
mained the  leading  company  to  this  day.  her  steamers  still  holding 
the  records  for  the  fastest  trips  across  the  Atlantic. 

The  war  with  Mexico  had  resulted  in  the  cession  of  the  province  <»f 
Northern  California  and  adjoining  territory,  composing  now  the 
States  of  California  and  Nevada  and  the  territory  of  New  Mexico. 
No  doubt  the  ceded  provinces  were  considered  of  value  by  the  citizens 
of  the  Union,  for  their  climate  and  the  products  of  the  soil  and  vine- 
yard. Suddenly  the  news  came  in  1848  that  gold  had  been  found  in 
the  region  acquired  by  the  United  States,  and  a  stream  of  emigration 
started  from  the  eastern  States  and  from  Europe,  across  the  plains 
and  mountains  west  of  Mississippi,  or  by  sea  around  Cape  Horn,  till- 
ing the  Pacific  border  with  a  great  population.  In  this  excitement, 
stirring  the  whole  world.  New  York  again  found  her  accouut  and 
profit.  It  gave  an  impulse  to  the  clipper-ship  business,  and  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt.  in  addition  to  his  steamers  to  New  Brunswick  and  the 
ports  on  the  Sound,  started  in  1849  a  line  of  steamships  sailing  to  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  thense  more  quickly  reaching  the  gold  fields  of 
California. 

It  seems  absurd  that  in  order  to  reach  California,  only  three  thou- 
sand miles  across  the  countn".  travelers  should  have  regularly  gone 
by  means  of  the  clipper-ships  around  Cape  Horn,  a  distance,  perhaps, 
twenty  thousand  miles.  Nor  was  the  journey  much  less  roundabout 
when  Vanderbilt  took  them  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  to  be  trans- 
ferred by  rail  across  that  narrow  neck,  and  then  taken  by  steamer 
again  up  the  coast  to  their  destination.  It  shows  that,  until  the  ad- 
vent of  the  railroad,  land  was  a  much  more  serious  obstruction  to 
communication  than  water.  With  clipper-ships  brought  to  perfec- 
tion and  with  st eamships  just  beginning  to  show  their  superiority  to 
the  best  sailing  machines,  it  was  yet  a  long  way  to  the  transconti- 
nental railway,  doing  in  a  few  days  what  it  took  the  fastest  sailer 
around  ('ape  Horn  to  do  in  as  many  months.  It  was  not  until  L854 
that  the  first  trunk  line  had  established  its  communication  between 
New  York  City  and  the  westernmost  extremity  of  its  own  State. 
Probably  iu  consideration  of  what  the  Erie  Canal  had  done  for  the 
Stale  and  the  city,  this  first  great  railroad  was  also  made  to  bring  the 
Erie  region  nearer  to  our  doors,  the  vast  utility  of  the  one  naturally 
suggesting  the  desirability  of  the  other.  As  early  as  18.°>L\  when  rail- 
roads were  still  a  novelty  in  England,  the  project  was  already  con- 
ceived to  construct  a  road  to  Lake  Erie,  in  a  general  way  parallel  to 
the  canal,  but  along  the  southern  tier  of  counties  of  the  State:  and 
De  Witt  Clinton,  dr..  under  the  auspices  of  the  Governmenl  at  Wash- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


339 


ington,  made  a  preliminary  survey.  As  a  result  stock  was  subscribed 
for,  aud  officers  of  a  corporation  were  chosen  the  next  year.  In  1834 
the  State  became  interested  in  the  project,  making  an  appropriation 
at  the  instance  of  Governor  Marcy  for  a  complete  survey  from  the 
Hudson  River  to  Dunkirk,  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  a  distance  of 
483  miles.  In  1836  construction  of  the  road  was  actually  begun  at 
various  points.  In  order  to  remain  within  the  State,  and  yet  get  the 
nearest  possible  to  New  York  City, 
the  road  had  to  run  along  the  very 
southern  borders  of  Rockland  County. 
On  the  Hudson  there  fortunately  was 
a  sudden  depression  in  the  line  of  the 
Palisades.  A  pier  a  mile  in  length 
was  thrown  out  along  the  shallow 
part  of  the  river,  here  expanding  into 
Tappan  Sea,  three  miles  wide,  whence 
the  place  has  derived  the  name  of 
Piermont.  In  1841  the  first  section, 
reaching  back  forty  miles  from  Pier- 
mont to  Goshen,  was  completed  and 
operated.  Some  financial  troubles  de- 
layed the  work  and  made  changes  of 
hand  necessary,  but  successively  sec- 
tion after  section  was  opened:  to  Port 
Jervis,  in  January,  1848;  to  Bingham- 
ton,  in  December,  1848;  to  Elniira,  Oc- 
tober 10,  1849;  to  Hornellsville,  in 
September,  1850;  and  at  last  to  its 
final  destination,  Dunkirk,  completing 
the  gigantic  undertaking,  on  April  22, 
1851.  At  every  step  accomplished 
celebrations  fittingly  occurred,  and 
when  the  line  was  completed  proper 
honors  were  done  to  the  occasion. 
President  Fillmore  came  from  Wash- 
ington, attended  by  his  Secretary  of 
State,  so  much  greater  than  himself, 
Daniel  Webster.  Two  trains  conveyed 

these  distinguished  guests  and  a  host  of  others,  including  the  Gover- 
nor and  State  functionaries,  and  representative  citizens  of  New  York, 
all  the  way  from  Piermont  to  Dunkirk.  On  the  morning  of  May  14. 
1851,  the  start  was  made,  and  that  night  the  gayly  decorated  trains 
reached  Elniira,  greeted  at  many  points  along  the  line  by  booming 
cannon  and  the  display  of  flags.  A  stop  was  made  here  overnight  for 
needed  rest.  The  next  morning  the  journey  was  continued,  and  Dun- 
kirk reached  at  six  o'clock  in  the  eveninu;.   On  the  next  afternoon  the 


THE   "AJIK.IIK  A  CUP. 


340 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


return  trip  was  commenced.  The  road  soon  vindicated  the  wisdom  of 
its  projection  and  justified  the  expense  of  its  construction.  Three 
years  later,  in  September.  1854,  the  report  of  business  for  the  preced- 
ing twelve-month  showed  that  the  road  had  carried  1,125,123  passen- 
gers and  743,250  tons  of  freight.  The  earnings  amounted  that  one 
year  to  about  10  or  17  per  cent,  of  the  total  cost.  It  had  in  operation 
183  locomotives  and  2,i)3.~>  cars. 

The  next  trunk  line  to  be  established  between  New  York  and  the 
west  was  the  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  Railroad.  It  also 
aimed  to  connect  the  Metropolis  with  Lake  Erie  and  the  Lake  region 
in  general,  its  course  being  almost  exactly  parallel,  and  in  many 
places  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  Erie  Canal.  It  took  advantage  of 
the  comparatively  level  country  near  the  borders  of  Lake  Ontario, 
and  of  the  natural  highway  to  the  Hudson  afforded  by  the  valley  of 
the  .Mohawk  River.  But  it  was  not  originally  conceived  as  a  trunk- 
line:  it  grew  to  be  one  by  the  accretion  of  several  short  lines.  One 
section  of  it,  that  between  Albany  and  Schenectady,  is  historic  as  the 
tirst  railroad  projected  and  the  first  in  actual  operation  in  America. 
It  was  chartered  in  1820,  and  in  September,  1831,  before  the  prelimi- 
nary survey  had  been  made  for  the  Erie  Road,  it  was  already  running 
between  its  two  termini.  Piecemeal  the  stretch  of  country  between 
the  upper  Hudson  and  Buffalo  was  supplied  with  railroads.  There 
were  the  Utica  Schenectady;  the  Syracuse  &  Ctica;  the  Rochester 
».V  Syracuse;  1he  Buffalo  &  Rochester.  Bui  besides  this  direct  exten- 
sion, or  dove-tailing  of  one  road  into  another,  making  a  continuous 
line,  there  were  other  roads  branching  off.  The  Schenectady  &  Troy 
branched  northwestward.  There  was  the  Syracuse  &  Ctica  Direct, 
which  indicates  t  hat  the  other  was  not  quite  so  direct.  From  Buffalo 
there  firs!  went  a  road  only  as  far  as  Lockport;  but  soon  the  present 
"  Calls  Branch  "  was  laid  out  by  the  company,  establishing  the  Roch- 
ester, Lockport  &  Niagara  Calls  Railroad.  There  came  also  to  be 
the  .Mohawk  Valley  Railroad,  welding  togel  her  the  iron  I  racks  all  t  he 
way  from  Rome  or  Ctica  to  Albany.  And  while  this  was  being  done 
in  the  upper  and  western  part  of  the  State,  steadily  cutting  into  the 
freight  and  passenger  traffic  of  the  Erie  Canal,  projectors  had  not 
failed  to  see  the  necessity  of  connecting  New  York  with  that  upper 
system,  nor  the  opportunity  afforded  for  easy  construction  by  the  east 
bank  of  the  Hudson.  Hence  in  1840  the  Hudson  River  Railroad  Com- 
pany was  chartered,  and  the  tirst  trains  began  to  run  in  1851,  about 
six  months  after  the  Erie  had  been  opened  for  traffic.  The  New  York 
Central  Railroad,  in  1 853,  combined  all  the  fragmentary  railways 
west  of  Albany  to  Buffalo,  with  its  side  branches,  under  one  company 
and  management.  Then  making  one  more  combination  in  1800  with 
the  Hudson  River  road,  there  was  constituted  the  second  trunk  line 
connecting  New  York  with  the  interior  country.  Philadelphia,  in 
1N.~>4,  was  connected  by  rail  with  Pittsburg,  and  many  roads  were  run- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


341 


ning  in  New  Jersey,  connecting  New  York  in  a  desultory  manner  with 
Philadelphia  and  other  points.  We  noticed  that  at  the  fire  of  1835  a 
locomotive  rushed  to  Newark  with  the  news,  and  drew  back  a  number 
of  much-needed  fire  engines.  When  Daniel  Webster  came  on  his  visit 
to  New  York  in  1837  he  traveled  from  Philadelphia  to  Perth  Amboy 
by  the  Camden  &  Amboy  Railroad,  then  recently  opened  for  traffic. 
There  steamers  met  the  trains,  and  conveyed  passengers  to  this  city. 
First  these  various  railways  of  New  Jersey  became  one  corporation,  as 
the  United  Railroads  of  New  Jersey,  and  then  these  were  absorbed  by 
the  Pennsylvania  Kail  read,  making  more  perfect  and  less  costly  the 
connection  of  New  York  with  the  middle  and  southern  States,  as  well 
as  sending  an  artery  of  traffic  from  the  great  heart  of  commerce  into 
the  middle  western  States. 

<  rreat  was  the  effect  upon  the  business  of  the  country  of  these  won- 
derfully increased  facilities  of  communication.  The  telegraph,  the 
steamship,  the  railroad,  brought  all  the  world  closer  together,  and 
sent  the  products  of  the  world  flying  to  each  other's  markets,  putting 
into  rapid  and  augmenting  circulation  great  sums  of  mouey.  The  en- 
terprises themselves  called  for  large  investments  of  capital  from 
which  phenomenal  returns  were  expected.  Hence  the  very  stimulus 
to  business  produced  by  the  progress  of  the  world  spread  the  fever  of 
speculation,  with  its  usual  consequences.  There  was  the  recovery  of 
business  after  the  war  of  1812,  and  a  panic  about  1818  or  1819.  There 
was  a  rush  of  trade  about  1825  and  a  depression  a  few  years  later,  sub- 
sequent both,  if  not  consequent,  upon  the  development  of  river  steam- 
boats and  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal.  There  was  the  panic  of 
1837,  and  now  again  in  1857  business  was  prostrated  by  a  fearful  col- 
lapse. "  Commercial  crises  are  periodic,"  observes  Prof.  Jevons.  "  It 
would  be  a  very  useful  thing  if  we  were  able  to  foretell  when  a  bubble 
or  a  crisis  was  coming,  but  it  is  evidently  impossible  to  predict  such 
matters  with  certainty.  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  it  is  wonderful  how 
often  a  great  commercial  crisis  has  happened  about  ten  years  after  the 
previous  one."  Whether  just  due  or  far  past  due,  the  crash  came 
in  1857.  In  August,  the  Ohio  Life  Insurance  and  Trust  Company  sus- 
pended payment,  its  obligations  amounting  to  seven  millions  of  dol- 
lars. The  shock  to  public  confidence  was  terrible.  There  was  a  sad- 
den run  on  banks  and  savings-banks,  and  suspension  was  inevitable 
everywhere.  In  September,  Philadelphia  banks  led  those  of  all  Penn- 
sylvania in  cessation  of  payment.  In  October,  the  banks  of  New  York 
followed  suit,  but  they  resumed  in  December.  The  excitement  on 
October  13,  just  before  the  suspension,  was  indescribable.  At  ten 
o'clock,  the  hour  for  opening  the  banks,  there  were  from  thirty  to  forty 
thousand  people  in  Wall  Street,  surging  in  front  of  the  various  insti- 
tutions, each  man  eager  to  get  in  before  the  other  and  draw  his  money 
before  the  stock  on  hand  should  be  exhausted.  Trade  was  paralyzed 
all  over  the  country.   Factories  ceased  running,  and  workmen  had  no 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


way  of  earning  wages.  Steamers  on  lakes  and  rivers  were  unem- 
ployed. Cargoes  from  abroad  were  sent  back  again,  and  shiploads  of 
emigrants  returned,  afraid  of  the  prospects  in  the  new  country. 
Proofs  accumulated  that  the  unnatural  stimulus  to  business  given  by 
the  new  conditions  of  traffic  and  transport  had  brought  on  the  calam- 
ity. "  A  prodigious  weight  of  insolvency  had  been  carried  along  for 
years  in  the  volume  of  trade.  Extravagance  of  living  had  already 
sapped  the  foundations  of  commercial  success.  Mismanagement  and 
fraud  had  gained  footing  in  public  companies  to  an  incredible  degree 
Hundreds  of  millions  of  bonds  were  issued  with  little  regard  to  the 
validity  of  their  basis.''   The  suffering  among  the  poor  which  ensued 


PANIC  OF  1857.    SCENE  IN  WALL  STREET. 


in  the  city,  w  ith  winter  on  hand,  was  alleviated  as  much  as  possible 
by  benevolent  provisions  on  the  part  of  the  authorities.  Many  of  the 
unemployed  were  given  work  in  the  construction  of  Central  Park  then 
under  way.  and  at  other  public  works  in  charge  of  the  city.  Soup- 
houses  were  opened  in  many  parts,  and  food  and  fuel  distributed  with 
a  lavish  hand.  In  spite  of  all  efforts,  however,  it  is  supposed  that 
many  perished  from  cold  and  starvation,  li  was  a  sad,  long,  and 
dreary  winter,  but  with  spring  confidence  again  revived  and  the  coun- 
try made  ready  for  recovery.  Over  five  thousand  failures  were  re- 
ported, with  liabilities  running  up  toward  three  hundred  millions. 
The  Five  Points  have  been  mentioned  more  than  once  in  the  pre- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


343 


ceding  pages.  In  the  earlier  days  of  a  primitive  colonial  town  the  ex- 
istence of  such  a  blot  upon  municipal  life  was  impossible.  AYhile  the 
city  grew  but  was  still  diminutive,  as  compared  with  the  period  now- 
reached,  the  conditions  were  not  yet  favorable  for  the  dregs  of  society 
to  sink  to  such  a  depth,  although  the  gravitation  was  beginning,  and 
"  Canvas  town  "  after  the  fire  of  1776.  gave  a  foretaste  of  the  later 
phenomenon.  For  such  the  "  Five  Points  "  was;  it  was  so  eminent  in 
its  horrors  of  iniquity,  of  moral  as  of  physical  filth,  that  it  had  become 
famous  throughout  the  world,  and  among  the  "  sights  "  of  America 
that  tourists  would  not  miss,  was  this  abominable  region.  Dickens 
cannot  finish  his  first  paragraph  on  New  York  in  his  "American 
Notes  "  without  speaking  of  it:  "  There  is  one  quarter,  commonly  call- 
ed the  Five  Points,  which,  in  respect  of  filth  and  wretchedness,  may 
be  safely  backed  against  Seven  Dials,  or  any  other  part  of  famed  St. 
Giles's."  But  London  was  older  and  bigger:  it  is  to  be  deplored  that 
New  York  had  already  caught  up  with  it  in  these  evidences  of  human 
degradation.  The  region  was  not  far  from  the  old  Collect  Pond.  Five 
streets  converged  here  to  a  point  :  Mulberry.  Baxter.  Worth,  and  two 
others  whose  names  are  not  now  the  same.  Indeed  the  region  has 
been  greatly  altered  and  purified,  the  small  blocks  of  irregular  or 
triangular  shape  formed  by  the  intersection  of  the  streets  having  been 
removed,  and  the  space  thus  made  converted  into  the  present  Mul- 
berry Park.  It  was  as  much  as  a  person's  life  was  worth  to  go 
through  this  region  in  the  daytime.  One  was  liable  to  rude  encount- 
ers of  all  sorts  on  the  part  both  of  men  and  women.  Dickens  visited 
the  spot  accompanied  by  a  policeman,  and  he  has  left  on  record  his 
impressions:  "Debauchery  has  made  the  very  houses  prematurely 
old.  Nearly  every  house  is  a  low  tavern;  lanes  and  alleys  paved  with 
mud  knee-deep;  underground  alleys  where  they  dance  and  game.  Al ' 
that  is  loathsome,  drooping,  and  decayed  is  here."  In  1850  efforts  be- 
gan to  be  made  on  the  part  of  Christian  women  to  penetrate  this 
black  darkness  of  sin  with  the  light  of  Christianity:  but  we  defer  an 
account  of  this  good  work  to  a  succeeding  chapter. 

Those  who  remember  to  have  seen,  in  the  late  sixties  or  early  seven- 
ties (we  will  not  be  too  precise  lest  some  of  our  lady  readers  might  re- 
member it)  the  bridge  that  spanned  Broadway  at  the  intersection  of 
Fulton  Street,  will  note  with  interest  that  this  same  corner  was  an 
intolerably  congested  one  as  early  as  1852.  Here  was  focussed  the 
traffic  from  Brooklyn  per  Fulton  ferry,  and  that  from  Jersey  City  per 
Cortlandt  Street  ferry,  meeting  the  tides  of  carts  and  trucks  and  om- 
nibuses and  carriages  and  pedestrians,  hurrying  about  on  business 
errands  that  could  not  wait.  It  was  impossible  to  cross  either  Fulton 
Street  or  Broadway,  and  the  delays  were  vexatious  both  to  the  vehi- 
cles and  the  foot  passengers.  So  some  good  and  wise  alderman  in 
1852  suggested  that  a  passenger  bridge  be  built  at  this  crowded  spot, 
to  be  reached  by  stairs  from  the  sidewalks  on  Broadway.   Mr.  Valen- 


344  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

tine  has  preserved  a  lithograph  in  one  of  his  Manuals  (1850)  snowing 
tlie  structure  proposed.  So  far  as  w  e  eau  recall  the  oue  that  was  built 
iu  later  days,  the  plan  was  but  slightly  different.  One  could  skip 
lightly  up  oue  stairs  aud  down  the  other,  if  Fulton  Street  was  to  be 
crossed:  a  broad  platform  the  full  width  of  Fultou  between  the  euros, 
extended  across  Broadway.  It  was  not  a  popular  institution  with 
the  ladies,  and  doubtless  a  truck  loaded  more  thau  usually  high, 
would  have  to  turn  back  into  a  side  street,  not  without  scintillations 
of  profanity  from  the  driver.  So  it  endured  no  very  great  length  of 
time,  and  has  faded  almost  from  the  memory  even  of  those  who  were 
privileged  to  utilize  the  well-meant  convenience. 

As  an  indication  of  the  growth  of  the  city  we  read  with  Lnteresl 
that  in  1849  no  less  than  1,618  houses  were  built.  The  city  was  get- 
ting quite  compact  as  far  north  as  Thirty-fourth  Street.  ye1  open 
spaces  were  not  infrequent  in  various  localities  below  that.  Fifth 
Avenue  had  already  become  the  fashionable  street,  and  with  dreadful 
monotony,  however  severely  splendid,  arose  the  interminable  rows  of 
brown-stone  fronts.  "  all  alike  outside,  aud  all  furnished  in  the  same 
style  within,"  says  one  who  knows.  "  heavy  furniture,  gilding,  mirrors, 
glittering  chandeliers.  If  a  man  was  very  rich  he  had  a  few  feet  more 
frontage,  and  more  gilding,  more  mirrors,  and  more  chandeliers." 
Yet  ouce  in  a  while  a  house  would  appear  out  of  the  ordinary  run.  <  >n 
the  corner  of  Thirty-fifth  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue  the  wealthy  Dr. 
Townsend  erected  a  mansion  in  185,").  which,  as  the  newspapers  ex- 
pressed it,  was  a  specimen  of  "  almost  royal  splendor."  It  was 
thought  too  hue  to  be  feasted  on  only  by  the  eyes  of  the  owner  and  his 
family;  accordingly  the  ladies  of  the  Five  Points  .Mission  asked 
whether  the  public  could  not  be  permitted  to  look  upon  its  "  royal 
splendor  "  at  so  much  per  head,  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  tickets 
of  admission  to  go  for  the  benefit  of  the  squalid  w  retches  t  hese  ladies 
were  trying  to  regenerate  downtown;  truly  a  curious  combination  of 
the  extremes  of  poverty  and  wealth,  and  a  novel  way  of  helping  the 
poor.  That  fine  house  is  gone,  but  a  later  generation  was  made  to 
look  upon  a  still  more  palatial  home  upon  the  next  corner  below,  at 
34th  Street,  built  by  A.  T.  Stew  art,  and  now  t  he  quarters  of  the  .Man- 
hattan (Democratic)  Club.  In  1850  street  railways  had  become  prettj 
general,  but  it  is  sad  to  learn  that  the  franchises,  even  at  that  early 
date,  were  obtained  by  bribery  of  the  common  council.  The  earliest 
cars  had  run  only  to  14th  Street;  they  needed  to  go  up  further  now. 
Yet  the  resident  on  Hleecker  Street,  or  about  St.  John's  Park,  in  1846, 
was  of  the  opinion  that  14th  Street  was  far  uptown.  St.  John's  Park 
and  church  were  now  the  center  of  a  fashionable  neighborhood.  Here 
resided  the  families  of  Alexander  Hamilton  (Mrs.  Hamilton  lived  un- 
til about  1858),  Cioneral  Schuyler,  and  General  Morton.  "They  owned 
their  houses,"  says  "Felix  Oldboy."  whose  father  was  pastor  of  a 
•church  nearby,  "and  had  their  own  keys  to  the  massive  gates  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


345 


park,  from  which  all  outsiders  were  rigorously  excluded."  About 
1850  another  select  neighborhood  grew  up  farther  uptown,  iu  the  sec- 
tion loug  known  as  Chelsea,  between  Eight  h  and  Ninth  Avenues,  from 
27th  to  30th  Streets.  A  few  vestiges  of  its  faded  respectability  still 
reveal  t  hemselves  to  the  observant  eve. 

In  1844  the  Wall  Street  Presbyterian  Church  could  no  longer  with- 
stand the  pressure  of  business.  Its  fine  building  was  sold,  and  the 
block  between  11th  and  12th  Streets  on  Fifth  Avenue  was  purchased, 
where  the  "  First  Presbyterian  Church,"  dangerously  near  the  ruin- 
ous downtown  limits,  still  stands.  Garden  Street  Church,  after  the 
fire,  had  become  two  bands.  One  party  was  so  wildly  foolish  as  to  de- 
termine to  build  away  up  on  Washington  Square,  corner  of  Washing- 
ton Place,  opposite  the  New  York  University.  The  conservative  ele- 
ment could  not  fall  in  with  this  madness  and  therefore  built  on  Mur- 
ray Street.  Alas!  they  themselves  had  to  pass  Washington  Square  and 
build  up  on  21st  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue,  and  now  the  Washington 
Square  and  the  21st  Street  Churches  have  both  beeen  demolished 
to  make  room  for  huge  business  buildings,  while  the  21st  Street 
congregation,  still §  clinging  to  the  old  name  of  South  Church  (so  ap- 
propriate to  that  which  was  first  the  most  northerly,  and  later  the 
most  southerly,  church  edifice  in  the  city),  worship  in  an  Episcopal 
Church  purchased  by  them  and  converted  to  their  own  usages,  on  the 
corner  of  38th  Street  and  Madison  Avenue.  No  less  interesting  is  it 
to  follow  the  migrations  of  the  other  churches  that  once  resounded 
with  the  Dutch  language.  In  1814  the  last  service  was  held  in  the 
Middle  Dutch  Church  on  Nassau  Street.  The  government  had  bought 
the  property  (or  leased  it)  and  altered  it  just  as  it  was  into  a  Post- 
office,  with  a  nondescript  array  of  additional  buildings.  But  in  1839 
the  Collegiate  Reformed  people  had  already  dedicated  a  new  a>  I 
magnificent  structure  on  the  corner  of  Lafayette  Place  and  4th  Street. 
It  was  an  imitation  in  solid  granite  of  the  Parthenon  on  the  Acropolis 
at  Athens,  but  by  a  crazy  freak,  the  architect  piled  on  the  top  of  the 
front  pediment  a  steeple,  which  made  the  effect  simply  preposterous. 
The  officers  had  the  good  sense  to  have  it  removed  after  some  years, 
and  now  the  church  became  a  real  ornament  to  the  city,  and  worthy  of 
the  study  of  lovers  of  Greek  architecture.  This  church,  so  far  away 
from  Nassau  Street,  became  the  Middle  Church  in  1S54,  when  a  hand- 
some and  graceful  marble  church  in  the  Gothic  style,  with  a  single 
steeple,  was  erected  on  the  corner  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  29th  Street. 
This  is  still  the  "  Marble  Collegiate."  only  unfortunately,  like  Dr. 
Parkhurst's  and  old  Trinity,  and  others  in  like  case,  steeple  and 
church  and  all  are  dwarfed  by  the  lofty  building  (a  hotel)  that  stands 
by  its  side.  Lafayette  Place  Church  made  way  for  business  several 
years  ago,  and  in  1869  the  "  North  "  Church  in  Fulton  Street  (now  en- 
tirely South),  after  completing  a  round  century,  was  demolished.  It 
is  of  course  impossible,  except  in  a  history  specially  devoted  to 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


churches,  to  follow  all  the  migrations  of  congregations  originally 
downtown.  We  have  indicated  Enough  of  them  to  give  an  idea  of  the 
general  trend.  The  claim  of  the  original  historic  church  to  such  par- 
ticular  notice,  however,  cannot  be  denied.  W'e  add  that  after  the 
Fulton  Church  was  also  made  to  disappear,  the  complement  of  three 
principal  edifices  usually  maintained  as  a  tradition  from  the  past,  was 
filled  up  by  the  exceedingly  elaborate  Gothic  brownstone  edifice  on 
the  corner  of  48th  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue.  The  account  of  the  chief 
architectural  ornament  in  the  way  of  church  building,  St.  Patrick's, 
on  50th  Street,  belongs  properly  to  a  later  period,  although  the  corner 
stone  was  laid  in  1S.~>8.  In  1S4('»  the  present  splendid  structure  re- 
placed the  church  erected  in  1790  on  the  old  site  of  Trinity. 

As  many  as  sixteen  public  schools  were  scattered  throughout  the 
city  in  1S42.    All  the  buildings  of  the  Public  School  Society  had  now 

been   turned   over   to  the 
Board  of  Education,  and  as 
the    population  increased 
the    schoolhouses    m  u  1  t  i- 
plied.  Greenwich  was  fast 
losing  all  marks  of  having 
been  a  village  or  a  suburb, 
yet  it  was  by  no  means  as 
yet  solidly  built  up.    It  re- 
joiced  in   the   old  school- 
house  at  Hudson  and  Grove 
Streets,  and  there  was  also 
one  ou  Greenwich  Avenue, 
the  former  Greenwich  Lane. 
The  latter  became  the  scene 
of  a  frightful  calamity,  the 
horror  of  which  is  not  yet 
forgotten,  and  which  gave 
IW  as  to  the  hanging  of  doors 
he  lady  teachers  had  come  to  at- 
ing  of  November  20,  L851,  although 
few  days.     About    two  o'clock  in 
day's  work,  she  was  overcome  by 
or  of  the  power  to  speak.    Her  pu- 


FRENCH  CHURCH    IN  1834. 


occasion  to  a  wise  and  salutar\ 
in  public  buildings.  One  of  tli 
tend  to  her  duties  on  t lie  mornii 
she  had  not  been  well  for  a 
the  afternoon,  weary  with  tlx 
a  sudden  faintness  depriving  1 
pils  became  very  much  alarmed,  and  some  of  the  larger  girls  in  the 
class,  seeing  she  was  about  to  faint,  cried  to  the  others  to  go  and  get 
some  water.  The  cry  of  "  water  "  was  taken  up  by  the  children,  and 
this  alarmed  those  of  the  neighboring  classes,  who.  imagining  that  it 
was  wanted  to  extinguish  a  fire,  changed  the  cry  for  "  water  "  into  one 
of  "  lire.''  This  produced  an  instantaneous  panic  all  through  the 
school.  Pupils  rushed  pell-mell  and  blind  with  frighl  from  one  room 
after  another  in  one  mad  rush  toward  the  stairs.  These  were  arranged 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


347 


at  eight  angles  around  ;i  wide  well  in  the  center.  Several  Little  ones 
stumbled  ere  the}'  reached  the  bottom  aud  those  behind  fell  over  tlieir 
prostrate  forms,  piling,  into  a  lieap  by  the  front  door.  The  door  w;is 
locked,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  day,  but  even  if  it  had  not  been, 
it  would  have  been  impossible  to  open  it  with  that  solid  mass  of  juven- 
ile humanity  blocked  against  it  on  the  inside,  the  doors  at  that  time 
invariably  swinging  inward.  Meanwhile  the  children  still  on  the  up- 
per floors  could  not  be  restrained  from  crowding  down  the  stairs. 
The  struggling  mass  pressing  against  the  banisters  upon  the  different 
flights  and  upon  the  landings,  soon  demolished  these  frail  guards,  and 
as  they  broke  away  the  children  from  the  first,  second,  or  third  stories, 
and  the  upper  portions  of  the  stairways,  kept  falling  sheer  down 
upon  their  suffocating  companions  below.  The  same  cry  of  fire  that 
had  done  the  mischief  within  was  taken  up  outside  when  the  shriek- 
ing and  the  struggling  was  heard,  and  a  lire  engine  was  soon  on  the 
spot.  This  fortunately  brought  helping  hands  to  the  scene  of  the 
calamity,  and  several  children,  as  in  their  desperation  they  were 
jumping  to  their  death  from  windows,  were  caught  and  saved  by  the 
firemen  and  others  in  the  street.  Soon  after  the  parents  of  the 
children  came  hurrying  to  the  school  frantic  with  anxiety  as  to  the 
fate  of  their  little  ones.  About  forty  children  were  taken  dead  from 
the  building,  and  a  tew  more  died  from  their  injuries  later.  While 
some  were  bruised  and  mangled  by  their  fall,  the  most  came  to  their 
death  from  suffocation.  A  law  was  passed  shortly  afterward  re- 
quiring all  doors  on  public  buildings  to  be  hung  so  as  to  swing  out- 
ward or  both  ways.  » 

Some  account  has  already  been  given  of  the  inarch  of  fashionable 
society  uptown.  Besides  those  places  mentioned,  the  wealthier  citi- 
zens were  congregating  around  Washington  Square,  now  convert  e<. 
from  a  parade  ground  into  a  handsome  pari;:  (after  having  been  a 
ghastly  Potter's  field,  or  pauper  burying  ground).  In  Bond  Street, 
Astor  Place,  Clinton  Place  (famed  only  lately  by  Crawford's  novels), 
houses  went  up  worth  tens  of  thousands,  even  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  As  early  as  1842  numerous  servants  in  livery  were  affected, 
quite  in  the  European  style.  Not  always  the  "  old  families  "  occupied 
these  sections,  or  affected  such  style.  They  were  found  rather  around 
St.  John's,  or  in  the  Chelsea  neighborhood.  In  these  showy  mansions 
were  apt  to  be  found  the  "  nouveau  riche,"  satirized  by  Dickens  in 
"Martin  Chuzzlewit,"  and  by  George  W.  Curtis  in  the  "Potiphar 
Papers."  The  aping  of  Europe  was  the  consequence  of  the  trips  across 
the  Atlantic  that  were  made  so  convenient  by  the  increasing  steam- 
ships. As  Mr.  Roosevelt  says  rather  severely,  but  with  truth:  "New 
York  possessed  a  large  wealthy  class  which  did  not  quite  know  how 
to  get  most  pleasure  from  its  money.  .  .  .  With  singular  pov- 
erty of  imagination,  they  proceeded  on  the  assumption  that  to  enjoy 
their  wealth  they  must  slavishly  imitate  the  superficial  features,  and 


34« 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  defects  rather  than  the  merits  of  the  life  of  the  wealthy  classes 
of  Europe.  .  .  .  They  put  wealth  above  everything  else,  and 
therefore  hopelessly  vulgarized  their  lives.''  Iu  the  very  midst  of  this 
fashionable  crowd  occurred  one  of  those  sensational  murders  in  high 
life  that  have  occasionally  startled  New  York  citizens.  On  January 
30,  1S57,  Dr.  Harvey  Burdell,  a  prominent  and  wealthy  dentist  living 
on  Bond  street,  was  found  murdered  in  his  room.  At  the  coroner's 
inquest  suspicion  fixed  upon  a  Mrs.  Cunningham,  who  had  been  his 
housekeeper,  or  worse,  as  the  guilty  person,  and  she  was  arrested  and 
subjected  to  a  trial.  The  matter  was  complicated  by  a  claim  of  mar- 
riage to  Dr.  Burdell  by  tins  woman,  and  Rev.  Mr.  Marvin,  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  on  Bleecker  and  Amos  mow  AYest  lot lo  streets,  was 
brought  forward  to  testify  he  had  married  them,  but  not  much  more 
w  as  proved  than  that  the  man  at  the  ceremony  had  personated  Dr. 
Burdell.  Accomplices  of  the  woman  were  also  placed  under  arrest 
and  tried.  The  case  was  watched  with  breathless  interest  by  the 
whole  town.  There  was  evidence  enough  against  Mrs.  Cunningham 
and  some  other  occupants  of  the  house  to  secure  a  conviction  by  the 
Coroner's  Jury  and  an  indictment  for  murder  by  the  Grand  Jury. 
But  t  lie  t  rial  resulted  in  the  acquittal  of  all  i  he  accused,  and  mystery 
st  ill  hangs  over  the  real  incident  s  of  i  he  case. 

It  is  like  a  whiff  of  the  good  old  days  to  read  of  a  benevolent  and 
antiquarian  Boniface  who  about  this  period  furnished  the  citizens  of 
New  York  with  a  collection  of  historical  relics,  and  among  them  the 
mutilated  remnant  of  William  Pitt's  statue,  placed  at  the  intersection 
of  Wall  Street  and  William  in  1770.  On  the  corner  of  West  Broad- 
way and  Franklin  Street,  west  side,  w  here  now  w  holesale  grocers  rear 
their  great  warehouses,  but  close  to  the  choice  residence-quarter  of 
the  Si.  John's  Park  of  those  days,  there  stood  what  was  called  by  the 
proprietor,  Riley's  Fifth  Ward  Museum  Hotel.  It  was  the  especial 
delight  of  the  children  of  the  neighborhood,  as  "  Felix  Oldboy  "  re- 
members with  a  relish,  who  hail,  like  all  others,  free  access  to  the 
room  w  here  the  curiosities  were  displayed.  Here  was  the  club  which 
had  brained  Captain  Cook  in  the  Sandwich  Islands;  Jackson's  pipe; 
Toeumseh's  rifle.  But  on  Franklin  Street,  just  outside  the  basement 
door,  stood  the  most  interesting,  if  not  the  most  sightly,  relic  of  all. 
It  was  the  statue  of  Pitt,  or  what  was  Left  of  it  after  the  British 
soldiers  had  vented  their  spite  on  it.  as  representing  too  stanch  a 
friend  of  the  colonies.  It  was  a  little  too  late  for  the  days  of  sum- 
mary beheadings,  or  doubtless  George  III.  would  have  enjoyed  giving 

his  great  minister  a  taste  of  it.  But  1  he  soldiers,  in  loyal  deference  to 
the  noble  feelings  of  their  master,  knocked  off  the  marble  head  of  the 
statue,  and  broke  off  an  arm  and  demoralized  t  he  sculptor's  effort  gen- 
erally. .Mr.  Riley  found  it  somewhere  and  seized  upon  it  in  his  thirst 
for  relics;  so  there  it  stood  at  least  seventy  years  after  the  day  of  its 
abuse,  to  remind  children  of  both  smaller  and  larger  growth  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


349 


things  that  happened  in  New  York  in  the  olden  times,  too  apt  to  be 
forgotten  amid  the  novel  modern  conditions  that  were  just  starting 
upon  their  career.  The  New  York  Historical  Society  since  obtained 
possession  of  the  statue,  and  secured  also  some  fragments  of  the  lead- 
en George  III.,  complimented  in  a  similar  way  by  the  American 
soldiers. 

Theatrical  entertainment  had  kept  pace  with  the  progress  of  tin- 
city  in  wealth,  and  while  Italian  opera  had  been  but  a  brief  and  doubt- 
ful experiment  in  the  previous  period,  one  of  the  handsomest  play- 
houses in  the  city  at  this  time  was  the  Italian  0,pera  House  on  Astor 
Place,  in  the  building  afterward  known  as  Clinton  Hall,  on  the  site 
of  the  present  Mercantile  Library.    But  unfortunately,  its  name  and 


v 1  if 


Iff 

1 

ill. 

Sfljlf 

i  "jo.llIIMIl 

m 

1 

Ji 

I  pj 1  'ji  1;  j 

ASTOR  PLACE  RIOT,  1849. 


fame  this  day  rest  more  upon  a  great  riot  which  took  place  in  its  vicin- 
ity, by  reason  of  a  play  that  was  going  on  within  it,  than  on  any 
special  histrionic  triumphs,  although  it  was  by  no  means  without 
these.  Professional  jealousies  and  national  antipathies  combined  to 
produce  this  unhappy  affair.  One  of  the  most  celebrated  tragedians, 
the  Edwin  Booth  of  his  time,  was  the  American  actor,  Edwin  Forrest. 
Contemporary  with  him,  the  finest  interpreter  of  Shakespeare  the 
English  stage  produced,  was  W.  C.  Macready.  The  latter  had  been 
in  America,  and  had  met  with  great  success,  being  received  and  ap- 
plauded with  great  cordiality  everywhere.  When  Mr.  Forrest  visited 
England  he  was  received  with  anything  but  cordiality,  even  without 
an  approach  to  decency,  and  Macready  was  responsible  for  the  treat- 
ment.   In  Paris,  too,  the  rivals  came  into  hostile  contact.  Under 


350 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


those  circumstances,  it  was  a  bad  move  on  the  part  of  Macready  to  at- 
tempt to  tour  America  again.  During  the  latter  part  of  L848  he  en- 
tered upon  a  series  of  engagements  in  various  parts  of  the  country, 
and  in  May,  1S49,  came  to  New  York  to  finish  with  a  number  of  nights 
;ii  the  Astor  Place  Opera  House.  The  New  York  native  American 
populace,  however,  determined  to  punish  him  for  his  ungenerous 
treatment  of  the  American  actor,  and  to  prevent  his  playing  in  New 
York.  The  play  upon  the  boards  for  the  first  night  was  Macbeth,  and 
the  house  was  about  half  filled  with  the  enemies  of  the  actor.  His 
appearance  was  the  signal  for  a  deafening  uproar,  made  up  of  hisses, 
groans,  insulting  remarks,  and  cries  of  "Down  with  the  English  hog," 
''Remember  how  Edwin  Forrest  was  used  in  London."  The  actors 
kept  on  as  best  they  could,  but  not  a  syllable  of  what  they  said  was 
heard.  Before  the  final  act.  therefore,  the  performance  was  aban- 
doned. Many  gentlemen  of  the  city,  headed  by  Washington  Irving 
himself,  felt  that  the  honor  of  the  city  was  at  stake,  and  begged  Mac- 
ready  to  appear  once  more,  and  they  would  guarautee  his  not  being 
molested.  He  consented,  but  the  invitation  and  its  acceptance  were 
looked  upon  as  a  challenge  by  the  mob.  and  now  much  more  serious 
consequences  followed.  On  May  10  Macready  again  appeared;  there 
was,  as  before,  a  serious  disturbance  inside  the  house,  and  the  police 
made  many  arrests.  A  rumor  that  the  crew  of  one  of  the  Cunarders 
was  to  be  on  hand  to  protect  the  English  actor  had  excited  the  popu- 
lace and  the  Mayor  had  called  out  the  militia  in  the  afternoon  to  pre- 
vent trouble.  This  only  provoked  the  populace  the  more.  Crowds  col- 
lected in  the  vicinity  of  the  Opera  House,  exposed  on  all  sides  to  at- 
tack, as  it  stood  at  the  junction  of  three  streets.  Eighth  Street.  Astor 
Place,  and  Lafayette  Place.  A  shower  of  paving  stones  was  the  first 
notice  of  their  presence.  These  crashed  through  window  glass  and 
barred  shutters  and  fell  among  the  audience.  Now  the  time  for  the 
military  t<>  act  had  come,  and  a  troop  of  horse  rode  into  the  mob  from 
Broadway,  scattering  them  for  the  moment.  But  soon  they  rallied. 
As  usual,  there  were  too  great  reluctance  and  hesitation  to  fire.  The 
first  tire  of  the  soldiers  was  over  the  heads  of  the  people,  which  only 
emboldened  them  to  resistance.  A  volley  of  paving  stones  was  the 
reply,  whereby  many  of  the  militia  were  badly  hurt.  These  missiles 
happened  to  be  on  hand  in  abundance,  as  one  of  the  streets  was  being 
paved.  Seeing  their  mistake,  the  officers  gave  the  command  to  "fire 
low,"  and  soon  the  desired  effect  was  obtained,  the  mob  quickly  dis- 
persing; but  ;is  the  result  of  the  professional  rivalry  between  the 
American  and  English  tragedians  twenty-two  lives  had  been  sacri- 
ficed. 

A  pleasant  contrast  to  this  display  of  national  hatred  and  mob 
violence  was  the  visit  of  Louis  Kossuth,  the  Hungarian  Patriot  in 
is.~)l.  lie  came  to  arouse  tin-  American  people  to  an  interest  in  his 
cause,  as  he  had  already  done  in  England.    He  had  made  himself  ob- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


351 


noxious  to  the  Austrian  government  by  his  agitations  in  Parliament 
and  in  the  press,  for  reforms  for  his  country,  demanding  self-govern- 
ment for  the  subject  and  oppressed  realm  of  Hungary.  For  this  he 
was  imprisoned  by  the  Austrians  on  a  charge  of  treason,  but  the  in- 
dignation awakened  thereby  was  so  intense  that  they  were  forced  to 
release  him.  Finally  resort  was  taken  to  arms,  but  on  the  field  of 
battle  the  Hungarian  cause  suffered  defeat,  and  Kossuth  was  com- 
pelled to  flee  the  country.  He  took  refuge  in  Turkey.  His  extradi- 
tion was  demanded  by  both  Russia  and  Austria.  The  Sultan  was  de- 
livered from  a  painful  dilemma  by  the  United  States,  who  sent  a 
steam  frigate  to  Constantinople  to  convey  Kossuth  to  this  country.  A 


THE  FOUNTAIN  IN  CITY  HALL  PARK. 


great  reception  was  tendered  him  on  his  arrival  at  New  York,  on  De- 
cember 6,  1851.  Crowds  filled  all  the  streets,  and  functionaries  civil 
and  military  vied  to  do  him  honor.  A  curious  incident  is  recorded, 
illustrative  of  manners  and  customs  of  the  day.  The  military  compan- 
ies were  in  the  habit  then  of  assuming  gorgeous  uniforms,  iu  imita- 
tion of  those  of  the  most  famous  regiments  of  Europe.  The  City 
Guard  bedecked  itself  with  the  glittering  accoutrements  of  the  Eng- 
lish "  Coldstream  Guards  ";  and  the  Light  Guards,  another  fashiona- 
ble organization,  arrayed  themselves  in  the  superb  regalia  adorning 
the  Body  Guard  of  the  Austrian  Emperor.  Xow  these  same 
Light  Guards,  just  because  they  were  so  magnificent,  were  de- 
tailed to  escort  Kossuth  as  his  close  and  special  attendants.  It 
was  the  poor  man's  fortune,  therefore,  to  be  met  face  to  face  at  the 
very  instant  of  landing  upon  American  soil  by  the  uniform  worn  by 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


his  most  determined  foes  at  Lome.  An  eyewitness  assures  us  that 
"he  started  back  with  an  involuntary  shudder.**  Besides  Kossuth, 
many  distinguished  foreigners  came  about  that  time  to  have  a  habit 
of  visiting  Ne*w  York:  Dickens,  Marryat,  Louis  Napoleon,  later  Em- 
peror, and  tLe  ex-King  of  Spain.  Indeed,  it  led  Chilian  C.  Verplauck 
to  remark  in  an  article  in  the  Talisman,  speaking  of  this  fact  regarding 
New  York:  "It  is  a  sort  of  thoroughfare,  a  spot  where  almost  every 
remarkable  character  is  seen  once  in  the  course  of  Lis  life." 

Much  Las  already  been  said  concerning  the  conditions  of  trade  and 
commerce  during  tLis  period.  TLe  telegraphs  and  railroads  of  tLe 
country  Lad  a  most  telling  effect  upon  the  business  of  New  York,  not 
only  in  augmenting  it,  but  in  modifying  the  manner  of  its  conduct.  It 
Lad  been  tLe  custom  of  merchants  of  the  interior,  located  at  I'itts- 
burg  or  Buffalo  or  Cleveland  or  St.  Louis,  to  pay  a  visit  to  New 
York  once  a  year  and  buy  up  a  stock  of  goods  for  the  year.  Now 
tLis  was  no  longer  necessary.  At  any  moment  that  a  want  was 
felt  for  a  particular  line  of  goods,  the  telegraph  made  it  known 
at  the  source  of  supplies  in  a  few  minutes,  and  in  a  day  or  two, 
or  at  most  a  week.  tLe  railroad  broughi  the  material  to  the  mer- 
chant's door.  Further  to  facilitate  these  quick  demands  for  par- 
ticular goods,  and  because  the  dealings  in  them  largely  increased  as 
the  interior  country  developed,  merchants  in  New  York  ceased  to 
carry  a  miscellaneous  stock.  Different  Louses  limited  themselves  to 
special  lines.  A  New  York  paper  of  1855  gloried  in  the  circumstance 
that  "  tLe  wealtL  of  tLe  great  Northwest  was  poured  into  the  lap  of 
New  York.  St.  Louis  formerly  bought  goods  at  New  Orleans,  now  it 
comes  to  us.  Illinois  bought  at  St.  Louis,  now  it  purchases  on  the 
Atlantic  Coast.  Ohio  went  bodily  to  Cincinnati  for  its  supplies.  Cin- 
cinnati itself  now  seeks  them  in  the  metropolis  of  the  Empire  State."' 
The  panic  of  1857  has  been  described.  It  was  produced  by  those  new 
methods  and  this  vast  augmentation  of  business,  too  sudden  to  be 
soberly  borne,  and  in  its  turn  brought  business  back  again  to  a  solid 
basis,  making  a  foundation  for  another  advance.  It  was  of  great  ben- 
efit to  finance  that  the  Clearing  House  was  in  existence  at  1  he  1  i me  of 
the  panic.  It  opened  its  doors  for  business  on  Tuesday.  October  1  L, 
1853,  at  14  Wall  Street.  The  London  bankers  had  established  such 
an  institution  in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  it  was 
greatly  needed  in  New  York.  In  the  Association  fifty-two  banks  were 
represented  at  its  beginning,  and  their  capital  combined  amounted  to 
$46,721,202.  It  was  largely  owing  to  it  that  the  banks  of  New  York- 
were  able  to  resume  so  shortly  after  the  suspension  of  October.  L857. 
If  Harriet  Martineau,  famous  for  her  tales  on  Political  Economy,  and 
therefore  an  authority,  could  say.  after  the  tire  of  1835,  "  the  commer- 
cial credit  of  New  York  can  stand  any  shock  short  of  an  earthquake 
like  that  of  Lisbon."  surely  a  compliment  even  more  pointed  than  this 
was  due  to  the  city  in  1857.  and  with  the  Clearing  House  as  an  addi- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


353 


fional  rock  amid  the  breakers.  The  markets  oi  the  city  had  grown  to 
the  number  of  fifteen,  among  them  new  those  so  familiar  to  us  all: 
Jefferson  and  Washington  and  Fulton  and  Essex  and  Center  and 
Clinton;  but  also  some  of  those  then  in  existence  are  gone,  o1  hers  hav- 
ing taken  their  places  in  other  localities.  In  1840*  Howe  invented  the 
sewing  machine,  and  a  perceptible  effect  followed  upon  the  clothing 
and  furnishing  trade.  Like  almost  every  other  important  invention, 
of  course,  there  were  prior  claims.  .V  very  well-founded  one  seems  to 
be  established  for  one  Walter  Hunt,  who  in  a  workshop  on  Amos  (now 
West  10th)  Street,  Now  York,  invented,  builK  and  put  into  success- 
ful operation,  between  the  years  1832  and  1834,  a  machine  for  sewing, 
stitching,  and  seaming  cloth.  By  formal  testimony  it  was  shown  t  hat 
in  New  York  alone  the  machines  saved  $75,000  on  every  |200,000  paid 
for  sewing  labor.  The  business  of  manufacturing  machine-sewn 
clothing  in  this  city,  as  early  as  1.858,  involved  the  expenditure  of 
1100,000,000  per  an- 
num, the  cost  of  the 
sewing  alone  reaching 
120,000,000. 

The  Democratic 
party  was  accustomed 
to  carry  the  election 
of  the  Mayors  by  aid 
of  the  foreign  vote, 
mainly  Irish,  which,  as 
we  noticed  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter,  resulted 
in  the  bestowal  of 
many  local  offices  upon 
persons  of  that  extrac- 
tion. This  state  of 
things  produced  a  reaction,  giving  new  zest  to  the  "  Native  Ameri- 
can "  party,  and  in  1814  that  party  in  the  charter  election  car- 
ried their  nominee,  Mr.  James  Harper,  of  the  great  publishing 
firm,  into  the  Mayor's  chair.  He  was  the  son  of  a  farmer  at 
Newtown,  L.  I.,  and  in  181 8  with  three  brothers  beside  himself 
established  a  printing  business  in  New  York.  But  in  1845  the 
Democrats  were  again  successful,  as  those  who  are  in  politics 
for  business  are  always  apt  to  return  to  the  spoils.  They  elected 
Mr.  William  F.  Havemeyer.  He  was  of  German  parentage,  but  born 
in  New  York  in  1804.  He  graduated  from  Columbia  College,  and  en- 
gaged in  the  sugar  business,  his  father  having  founded  the  con- 
cern which  has  since  acquired  such  gigantic  proportions.  In  1848  he 
w  as  elected  again,  and.  what  is  more  remarkable,  nearly  a  generation 
later,  in  1872,  wjhen  he  was  almost  seventy  years  of  age,  he  was  again 
made  Mayor  by  the  suffrages  of  his  fellow  citizens.    In  1849  an 


354 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


amendment  was  made  to  the  City  Charter  providing  that  elections 
for  city  oihces  and  the  national  elections  should  be  held  on  the  same 
day.  In  1830  the  reverse  of  this  had  been  effected,  but  it  seems  that 
the  separation  of  the  two  did  not  have  the  desired  results,  and  hence 
in  1841)  the  citizens  returned  to  what  those  of  the  present  day  would 
like  to  abrogate  once  more.  A  change  of  a  more  striking  nature  was 
the  division  of  the  city  government  into  nine  great  departments:  I. 
the  Police  Department,  under  the  care  of  the  Mayor,  assisted  by  a 
bureau,  the  head  of  which  was  called  "  Chief  of  Police  ";  II.  the  De- 
partment of  Finance,  with  a  Comptroller,  aud  three  subdivisions 
under  a  Receiver  of  Taxes,  Collector  of  City  Revenues,  and  City  Cham- 
berlain; 111.  a  Street  Department,  having  a  Commissioner  of  Streets, 
with  two  bureaus,  under  a  Collector  of  Assessments  and  Superintend- 
ent of  Wharves;  IV.  a  Department  of  Repair  and  Supplies,  in  four 
bureaus;  V.  a  Department  of  Streets  and  Lamps,  with  three  bureaus, 
one  having  superintendence  of  markets;  VI.  the  Croton  Aqueduct 
Hoard;  VII.  a  Department  of  City  Inspection;  VIII.  the  Almshouse 
Department;  and  IX.  the  Law  Department,  its  chief  known  as  Cor- 
poration Counsel.  The  heads  of  these  departments  were  all  to  be 
elected  by  the  people  and  to  hold  office  for  t  hree  years.  The  ( )onimon 
Council  had  power  of  legislation  over  all;  the  charter  of  L830  had 
given  also  the  appointment  of  the  heads  of  departments  to  the  Coun- 
cil. The  charter  of  1841)  still  retained  for  the  people  the  right  to  vote 
on  important  questions  of  municipal  policy.  Between  1841)  and  L857 
a  popular  vote  was  taken  on  the  free  school  question;  on  the  act  estab- 
lishing the  police;  on  the  Croton  water  question;  and  also  on  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Free  Academy,  now  the  City  College. 

A  change  gradually  came  over  the  character  of  city  officers.  At  t  he 
beginning  of  the  era  now  under  discussion  it  could  still  be  said  that 
aldermen,  assistant  aldermen,  delegates  to  city  conventions,  and  all 
kinds  of  municipal  officers,  were  men  of  not e  and  weight  in  business  or 
Law.  By  reason  of  obligations  to  certain  undesirable  portions  of  the 
community,  at  lirst  some  of  the  minor  offices  went  into  questionable 
hands.  Rut  such  men  as  Lawrence  and  Havemeyer  and  Mickle  and 
.Morris,  were  still  placed  in  the  Mayor's  chair.  But  we  have  already 
seen  that  street  railway  franchises  in  L850,  and  later,  were  obtained 
by  bribes.  In  L857,  says  one  chronicler  not  inclined  to  harsh  view  s  of 
his  fellow  men,  "  bribery  was  common;  political  influence  often 
shielded  great  criminals;  the  aldermen  were  no  longer  reputable." 
and  as  if  to  cap  his  climax,  he  observes,  "  the  Mayor  w  as  Fernando 
Wood."  A  historian  accustomed  to  more  forcible  language  says  of 
the  city  officials  of  this  period:  "  Fernando  Wood,  an  unscrupulous 
and  cunning  demagogue,  whose  financial  honesty  was  more  than 
doubtful,  skilled  in  manipulating  the  baser  sort  of  ward  politicians, 
became  the  '  boss  '  of  the  city,  and  was  finally  elected  .Mayor."  This 
dreadful  event  occurred  in  t  he  year  isr>r>.  and  t  he  man  was  re-elected, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


355 


so  that  he  held  the  place  also  iu  1856  and  1857,  and  was  put  in  again 
in  1860  and  1861.  It  was  probably  on  account  of  the  composition  of 
the  municipal  government  that  New  York  lost  so  much  of  its  "  home 
rule"  by  the  charter  of  1857.  Some  writers  lament  the  loss  of  the 
city's  independence,  since  not  even  in  the  matter  of  an  amendment 
to  the  charter,  or  a  new  charter,  the  people  now  have  a  voice.  Even 
Prof.  Fiske  grows  indignant  over  the  dependence  of  our  city  upon  the 
arbitrary  will  of  a  state  legislature  as  established  in  1857.  "  A  man 
fresh  from  his  farm  on  the  edge  of  the  Adirondacks,"  he  argues, 
"  knows  nothing  about  the  problems  pertaining  to  electric  wires  in 
Broadway,  or  to  rapid  transit  between  Harlem  and  the  Battery."  But 
then  his  bucolic  freshness  might  act  as  a  brake  upon  certain  proceed- 
ings likely  to  come  from  Fernando  W  ood  and  his  confreres.  In  reply 
to  this,  however,  Fiske  pointedly  urges  that  "  it  did  not  prevent  the 
shameful  rule  of  the  Tweed  Ring." 

Mr.  Wood  distinguished  his  reign  in  1857  by  organizing  a  riot,  an 
a  1'1'air  which  other  Mayors  usually  sought  to  suppress  at  the  risk  of 
their  lives,  and  hardly  ever  without  receiving  personal  injury.  In 
1811  the  legislature  passed  the  Municipal  Police  Act;  but  as  the  Com- 
mon Council  did  not  harmonize  in  politics  with  the  State  body,  the  act 
was  not  seconded  by  the  necessary  city  ordinance  until  1845.  Then 
was  begun  the  regular  uniformed  police.  The  riots  of  1834  and  1837 
had  proved  how  inadequate  were  the  previous  constabulary  arrange- 
ments, even  with  such  an  efficient  chief  as  the  notable  and  redoubt- 
able High  Constable,  Jacob  Hays.  He  was  appointed  when  Edward 
Livingston  was  Mayor  of  the  city,  or  about  1802,  and  up  to  his  death, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-eight,  he  was  reappointed  by  every  successive 
Mayor.  He  grew  to  be  a  feature  of  the  city  itself;  if  any  place  was 
given  to  the  town  in  story  or  essay  or  book  of  travel,  Constable  Hays 
was  sure  to  figure  in  the  pages.  In  a  street  brawl  his  great  physical 
strength  made  him  a  terror,  and  by  his  shrewdness  and  intelligence 
he  supplied  a  whole  Detective  Bureau  in  one.  No  miscreant  could 
escape  him;  and  he  did  not  know  the  name  of  fear.  He  could  deal 
with  a  mob  as  well  as  any  one  man  can,  and  yet  he  was  universally 
liked  by  the  populace.  He  was  himself,  or  his  parents  before  him, 
converted  from  the  Jewish  faith,  and  having  married  a  Baptist  lady 
from  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  he  connected  himself  with  that  denomina- 
tion. But  with  the  uniformed  municipal  police,  the  High  Constable's 
occupation  was  gone.  This  new  body  now  undertook  to  guard  the 
city's  peace,  under  the  partial  control  of  the  Mayor,  and  in  1857  "  the 
Mayor  was  Fernando  Wood."  Perhaps  for  that  reason  the  Legisla- 
ture in  the  Spring  of  that  year  created  another  kind  of  police,  called 
the  Metropolitan,  and  gave  its  management  into  the  hands  of  five 
commissioners,  appointed  by  the  Governor  and  Senate.  To  this  ar- 
rangement Fernando  Wood  would  not  submit.  He  defied  the  new 
Commissioners,  claiming  that  the  law  was  unconstitutional.    He  col- 


1356  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

Lected  his  own  "  Municipals"  around  him,  and  prepared  for  war.  A 
Commissioner  appointed  by  the  Governor  was  forcibly  ejected  from 
the  City  Hall.  The  latter,  obtaining  two  warrants  for  the  arrest  of 
the  Mayor,  came  hack  with  fifty  "Metropolitans."  There  was  a 
pitched  battle  between  the  "  Municipals  "  and  the  "  Metropolitans  " 
(something  like  twiddle-dees  and  twiddle-dunis),  and  many  men  were 
badly  wounded,  so  that  the  City  Hall  actually  ran  with  blood,  a  thing 
to  make  a  law -abiding  citizen  shiver.  At  the  very  moment  when  the 
battle  was  fiercest,  the  gallant  Seventh  Regiment  was  marching  by  on 
its  way  to  take  the  boat  for  Boston.  <  reneral  Sand  ford,  the  hero  of  the 
Astor  Place  riots,  being  informed  of  the  situation,  turned  the  Regi- 
onal at  once  into  the  Park,  and  proved  himself  quite  as  capable  of 
dealing  with  a  riotous  Mayor  as  with  a  riotous  populace,  for  Mr. 

W  ood,  alarmed  at  the  turn  matters 
might  take,  agreed  to  allow  the  war- 
rants to  be  served  on  him.  The  vic- 
torious Seventh  went  on  to  Boston, 
not  having  been  delayed  long  enough 
to  uiiss  the  boat;  but  nine  other  regi- 
ments were  placed  under  arms  to 
overawe  Mayor  Wood's  respectable 
adherents  and  partisans.  The  Court 
of  Appeals  deciding  that  the  new  law- 
was  constitutional,  dismissed  the 
Mayor's  plea,  and  the  Metropolitan 
Police  took  the  place  of  the  other 
force. 

In  1840  the  population  of  New 
York  was  312,700;  in  1830  it  had  in- 
HIGH  CONSTABLE  JACOB   HAYS.       creased   to  510,547;  and  in   1855  ii 

was  about  030,000.  While  the  city 
extended  in  a  manner  as  far  as  34th  Street,  the  habitations  were 
greatly  scattered;  yet  in  L855  the  population  above  40th  Streel 
was  estimated  at  58,000.  In  1840  the  city  had  eighteen  wards; 
there  were  nineteen  in  L851,  and  twenty  in  L852.  In  L857  tene- 
ment-houses were  in  use.  and  produced  already  their  evil  results, 
but  the  lower-middle  class  was  not  yet  housed  in  its  apartment- 
houses  or  "  Hats."  These  came  down  to  our  age  from  Home  in  the 
days  of  the  Empire,  being  revived  in  Edinburgh  and  Paris,  and 
thence  brought  over  to  New  York  somewhere  Dear  the  seventies.  The 
emigration  from  Europe  between  1S47  and  1S5S  ran  up  to  2,486,463 
persons.  Of  these  Ireland  contributed  1.027.002.  and  Germany  913,- 
.'570.  In  one  year,  1 S54,  alone.  31 8,438  persons  arrived  al  our  port  from 
abroad.  This  vast  influx  of  humanity,  however  deleterious  in  some  of 
t  he  elements,  contributed  to  make  t  he  Metropolis  of  the  Empire  State 
an  imperial  city  herself,  its  population  was  only  one  <>f  the  measures 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


357 


of  its  vastness.  There  were  great  suburbs  ou  all  sides  of  her:  Brook- 
lyn and  Williamsburg  nobly  flanked  her  on  the  east,  consolidated  now 
into  one  city,  and  constituting  soon  the  third  city  in  the  Union,  a  rank 
it  held  until  Chicago  began  to  annex  the  upper  pari  of  Illinois.  Like- 
wise Jersey  City  and  Hoboken  and  even  Newark  were  growing  to 
great  size  as  suburbs  of  New  York,  owing  existence  to  her,  nourished 
by  her  commerce,  giving  residence  to  her  men  of  business.  It  was  in 
reality  but  one  great  city  that  clustered  about  the  mouths  of  the  Hud- 
son and  East  Eivers. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   CITY'S  HIGHER  LIFE. 

FTEK  a  brief  account  of  the  public  events  that  till  up  the  few 
years  between  the  period  last  treated  and  the  beginning  of 
the  Civil  War,  it  will  be  a  pleasant  diversion  to  devote  our 
thought  to  a  consideration  of  our  city's  higher  life — i.e.,  its 
interest  in  education,  art.  science;  the  aesthetic  life  of  the  people;  the 
advancement  of  the  nobler  instincts  of  the  individual;  the  ministra- 
tion to  chaste  and  elevating  pleasures;  the  writing  of  books  and  the 


THE  BATTERY   AM)  CASTLE  GARDEN   IN   1  *•"><>. 


reading  of  books.  Of  this  higher  life,  amid  all  the  intensities  of  her 
business  and  all  the  magnificence  of  her  commerce  sometimes  per- 
haps too  exclusively  emphasized    t  here  are  happily  many  evidences. 

As  already  intimated,  the  recovery  from  the  panic  of  L857  was  very 
rapid,  owing  to  the  solid  financial  backbone,  preserved  to  a  great  de- 
gree by  the  Clearing  House  system.  In  two  months'  time  the  banks 
were  resuming  payments,  and  at  once  confidence  was  restored.  As  a 
Frenchman  told  a  merchant  with  whom  he  had  invested  a  few  thou 
sand  dollars:  "Suppose  you  no  go1  de  money,  den  1  vant  him  ver 
much.  Suppose  you  got  him.  den  1  no  vant  him  at  all.  Vow*  com- 
prenes,  eh?"  Since  the  people  were  assured  the  banks  had  their 
money,  they  did  not  care  to  trouble  the  banks  about  it.  and  it  was  left 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


359 


for  them  to  circulate  it  again  among  the  channels  of  trade  and  indus- 
try. Somehow  the  drygoods  trade  showed  the  evidences  of  the  late 
trouble  longer  than  any  other  business.  At  least  quantities  of  goods 
were  being  offered  for  sale  at  wonderfully  reduced  prices  all  through 
the  winter.  It  must  have  been  some  prudent  people  who  had  cash 
enough  left  to  buy  at  ruinously  low  prices  when  the  crash  came,  who 
now  were  enjoying  a  big  profit  out  of  the  cheap  prices  they  could  still 
offer.  The  unemployed,  too,  were  much  in  evidence  around  the  region 
of  Tompkins  Square.  But  as  one  chronicler  shrewdly  observes,  they 
could  not  have  been  greatly  in  want  of  bread,  for  once  when  a  balcer 
went  by  during  one  of  the  open  air  meetings,  he  was  rudely  knocked 
about  and  his  loaves  were  kicked  and  thrown  around  as  if  they  were 
footballs  instead  of  necessaries  of  life. 

The  lively  times  occasioned  by  the  conflict  between  Mayor  Wood's 
Municipal  and  the  State's  Metropolitan  Police,  were  followed  up  by 
that  description  of  citizens  and  voters  who  were  most  closely  allied 
with  the  Mayor.  A  number  of  residents  in  the  Five  Points  organized 
themselves  into  a  band  or  gang,  styling  themselves  by  the  euphonious 
and  savory  epithet  of  "  Dead  Rabbits,"  or  the  "  Roach  Guard."  Not 
to  be  outdone,  either  in  name  or  organization,  dwellers  in  and  about 
the  Bowery  formed  the  "  Atlantic  Guard,"  or  "  Bowery  Boys,"  a  title 
which  has  perhaps  not  quite  departed  yet.  The  gentlemen  composing 
these  gangs  frequently  had  trials  of  strength  and  fighting  qualities. 
The  evening  of  the  3d  of  July,  1857,  was  deemed  an  appropriate  occa- 
sion for  warfare,  and  a  battle  was  fought  in  Bayard  Street,  near  the 
Bowery.  This  only  warmed  them  up  to  more  heroic  efforts  on  the 
glorious  Fourth  itself,  when  another  battle  royal  was  fought  with 
stones,  sticks,  and  knives,  and  men,  women,  and  children,  indiffer- 
ently, were  wounded  right  and  left.  The  "  Dead  Rabbits  "  of  the  Five 
Points  carried  the  day.  and  marched  in  triumph  to  the  City  Hall  to 
call  upon  their  friend,  the  Mayor,  on  this  day  devoted  to  patriotism. 
They  must  have  liked  the  looks  of  things  there,  for  on  another  occa- 
sion, when  the  courts  were  sitting,  they  came  and  took  possession  of 
the  building  for  a  whole  hour.  When  their  rivals  of  the  Bowery  at- 
tempted to  join  them,  they  were  beaten  off,  one  of  them  within  an  inch 
of  his  life;  and  then  the  "Dead  Rabbits"  reveled  in  glory  amid  the 
precincts  of  justice,  stopping  its  course  by  shouts  and  objurgations. 
Mayor  Wood  really  had  too  much  of  it;  his  own  police  had  too  many 
friends  among  the  mob  to  be  useful,  and  so  the  militia  had  to  be  called 
in  again.  The  Seventh  was  still  visiting  Boston  and  was  telegraphed 
for.  and  several  other  regiments  were  called  into  action.  A  regular 
siege  was  laid  to  the  stronghold  of  our  Municipal  dignity,  and  not  till 
fire  had  been  opened  upon  the  rioters  and  a  record  of  six  killed  and  a 
hundred  wounded  had  attested  the  seriousness  of  the  disturbance, 
was  peace  once  more  restored.  The  only  good  that  flowed  from  the 
rmnitr  was  that  citizens  of  all  political  stripes  were  determined  to  ac- 


360 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


cede  to  the  State's  bill  creating-  a  Metropolitan  Police.  There  was 
also  a  reaction  against  officials  like  Mayor  Wood.  A  citizens'  party 
was  organized,  with  the  Democrat  Ilavemeyer  ranged  side  by  side 
with  the  indignant  opposition  leaders.  Hence  at  the  charter  election 
in  December  (which  had  again  been  separated  from  the  national  elec- 
tion) the  citizens'  ticket  prevailed,  and  Daniel  T.  Tieniann  was  chosen 
Mayor,  defeating  Wood,  who  was  the  candidate  of  the  "regular" 
Democrats.  The  reaction  to  better  government,  for  a  wonder,  lasted 
longerthaD  a  year,  and  Tieniann  was  elected  again  in  1859.  But  then 
the  inevitable  "  wallowing  in  the  mire  "  could  no  longer  be  postponed, 
and  Fernando  Wood  ascended  the  chair  again  in  1860  and  in  1861. 
giving  him  a  chance  to  distinguish  himself  once  more  when  the  crisis 
of  war  came  on. 

There  Mere  more  than  flutterings  in  the  air  here  as  the  tempest  of 
civil  strife  was  coining  on.  although  New  York  was  quite  on  the  edge 
of  the  cyclone  that  was  whirling  around  the  capital.  When  news 
came  to  this  city  of  the  execrable  conduct  of  the  cowardly  Southern 
brute  who  beat  Senator  Sumner  into  insensibility,  t  lie  excitement  was 
intense.  An  indignation  meeting  was  held  at  the  15  road  way  Taberna- 
cle, one  of  the  largest  audience-rooms  in  the  city,  and  resolutions 
passed  expressive  of  "New  York's  opinion  of  Southern  "  honor  "  as  thus 
exemplified.  It  gave1  the  city  and  the  country  a  taste  of  the  temper 
of  the  South.  Tt  illustrated  whal  liltle  confidence  they  had  in  their 
own  position  on  the  slavery  question,  when  in  this  way  they  replied  to 
arguments  showing  the  injustice  of  foisting  the  "institution"  upon 
an  unwilling  State.  When  men  can  no  longer  meet  reason  with  rea- 
son, they  resort  to  brute  force  to  maintain  their  side  and  hide  its 
weakness,  freedom  of  speech  was  but  a  small  affair  to  those  by 
whom  freedom  of  person  was  systematically  denied  to  so  many.  "  The 
crime  against  Kansas."  so  far  as  attempted  or  perpetrated,  was  de- 
plored and  deprecated  by  our  citizens,  yet  it  was  not  thought  in  New 
York  that  such  a  serious  result  as  war  for  the  existence  of  the  Union 
would  follow.  Kansas  was  far  off.  things  were  apt  to  be  somewhat 
turbulent  in  border  States,  the  threats  of  the  South  were  considered 
to  defeat  themselves  by  their  very  extravagance,  and  affairs  were  get- 
ting into  such  a  tine  condition  of  prosperity  again  in  1858,  that  it  may 
have  contributed  to  keep  the  generality  of  the  citizens,  not  usually 
possessed  of  exceptional  foresight,  in  a  sort  of  fool's  paradise. 

During  (he  summer  of  that  same  year  the  attention  and  interest  of 
New  York  were  absorbed  in  a  new  enterprise,  another  annihilation  of 
time  and  space,  intended  to  make  Europe  our  very  next-door  neighbor, 
within  a  few  minutes'  speaking  distance.  The  project  of  laying  a 
cable  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  had  engaged  the  though!  and  labor 
and  means  of  many  public-spirited  men.  fables  had  been  laid  across 
narrow  seas  and  gulfs  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  ami  had  worked 
Successfully;  but  it  took  Yankee  genius  and  pluck  to  make  so  exten- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


361 


sive  ;ni  application  of  it  as  was  involved  in  bridging  a  distance  of 
three  thousand  miles.  It  may  well  serve  to  excite  a  pardonable  pride 
in  our  own  city,  that  the  main  movers  in  the  project  were  Cyrus  W. 
Field  and  Peter  Cooper,  both  reckoned  among  her  denizens.  They  in- 
terested Englishmen  of  science  and  means  in  the  undertaking,  and  in 

1857  the  cable  was  constructed  and  ready  for  laying  along  the  bed  of 
the  ocean.  Two  points  nearest  to  each  other  on  either  side  of  the 
water,  and  reasonably  accessible,  were  selected.  One  half  the  cable 
was  coiled  on  board  the  United  States  steamship  Niagara,  the  other 
on  board  the  English  steamship  Agamemnon.  «In  mid-ocean,  on  June 
2(5,  the  two  ends  were  made  fast,  when  the  Niagara  started  for 
America  and  the  Agamemnon  for  Ireland.  Three  times  the  cable 
broke  and  the  attempt  was  abandoned.  In  August  a  different  plan 
was  attempted.  The  cable  was  made  fast  at  Valentia  Bay,  the  Niag- 
ara began  to  pay  out,  the  Agamemnon  to  take  up  the  work  when  the 
first  half  was  laid.  The  cable  broke  again  on  August  11,  when  over 
three  hundred  miles  had  been 
paid  out.  There  was  no  renewal 
of  the  attempt  that  year,  but  in 

1858  the  two  vessels  were  again 
called  into  service,  and  the  first 
plan  once  more  put  into  opera- 
tion. They  met  in  mid-ocean  on 
July  29,  and  on  August  6  each 
arrived  at  its  destination,  and 
the  shore  ends  were  made  fast. 
Telegraphic  communication  was 
attempted  and  was  achieved 
with  perfect  success.  The  fact 
was  announced  to  the  country, 
and  President  Buchanan  was 
notified  that  the  Queen  would 
send  him  a  message.  The  excite- 
ment all  over  the  country  was 
tremendous.  We  are  so  accus- 
tomed to  the  wonders  of  our  day  that  we  have  no  feeling  left  for 
the  surprise,  delight,  awe,  wherewith  a  former  generation  tirst 
realized  that  in  a  few  moments  they  could  know  what  was  going 
on  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean;  that  merchants  might  send 
orders  for  goods  to-day  to  be  ready  for  shipment  on  a  steamer  that 
might  sail  to-morrow.  In  scores  of  cities  throughout  the  land 
rejoicings  and  celebrations  honored  the  happy  event,  and  people 
sent  their  congratulations  to  the  Metropolis  whose  sons  had  con- 
ferred so  great  a  boon  on  humanity.  On  August  17  flic  mes- 
sage of  the  Queen  arrived  (rather  long  in  coming),  and  the  President 
replied,  and  both  seemed  to  have  been  transmitted  satisfactorily. 


JENNY  LIND. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Before  this  Mr.  Field  had  been  given  a  banquet;  the  choir  and  organ 
in  Trinity  had  sung  a  Te  Deum  in  thanksgiving  for  the  event ;  the  Citj 
Hall  was  made  brilliant  with  fireworks  and  illuminations,  which. how- 
ever, resulted  in  ruining  its  handsome  front,  setting  the  roof  on  tire, 
cracking  its  windows,  and  leaving  it  in  a  sorry  plight  generally.  Its 
fate  may  have  been  an  anticipation  of  the  mourning  that  was  soon  in 
order  for  the  same  cable  which  had  set  the  city  thus  jubilating.  After 
the  messages  of  the  Queen  and  President  had  been  exchanged,  the  citi- 
zens supplemented  the  previous  festivities  with  a  general  celebration, 
consisting  of  a  parade  with  bands  and  banners  and  tloats  and  all. 
just  like  those  on  previous  ureal  occasions  already  described,  and  of 
which  each  latest  was  always  "  the  grandest  ever  seen  in  New  York." 
Sad  to  say,  however,  the  hopes  of  an  established  communication  per 
telegraph  with  Europe  were  doomed  to  disappointment  for  a  while  as 
yet.  In  September  it  was  known  that  the  cable  Avas  broken  again, 
and  messages  failed  to  "  transmit."  Field,  Cooper  and  the  ol hers  felt 
the  blow  keenly,  but  if  did  not  crush  them.  Eight  years  later,  with 
war  overpast  and  peace  again  making  ready  for  prosperity,  their  proj- 
ect was  crowned  with  success.  "  Tout  vient  a  point,  pour  qui  pent  <il- 
tendre." 

A  reminder  of  the  Doctor's  Eiot  occurred  almost  at  the  same  time 
that  New  York  was  in  gala  attire  for  the  cable  celebration.  We  have 
not  yet  forgotten  with  what  dislike  the  people  near  Fire  Island  re- 
garded the  purchase  of  that  place  as  a  temporary  Quarantine  Station 
to  receive  the  passengers  detained  upon  steamers  coming  from  Ham- 
burg during  the  cholera  visitation  of  a  few  years  ago.  For  many  years 
the  quarantine  had  been  established  upon  Staten  Island,  and  its  resi- 
dents had  never  looked  upon  it  with  a  friendly  eye.  Tt  discouraged 
the  purchase  of  property  on  the  island,  being  supposed  to  spread  there 
the  diseases  which  it  was  meant  to  keep  from  the  city.  Thus  the  pres- 
ence of  the  hospital  and  other  buildings  gave  great  offense.  Tn  Au- 
gust, 1858,  the  people  gathered  to  the  number  of  over  a  thousand,  and 
despite  the  remonstrances  of  the  officials,  and  the  interference  of  tin1 
military  from  the  neighboring  forts,  they  attacked  the  station  and 
burned  the  buildings  to  the  ground.  Tt  was  of  course  not  a  very  intel- 
ligent view  of  the  situation  which  induced  such  a  summary  and 
riotous  proceeding,  but  it  was  entirely  natural.  The  State  at  least 
respected  the  prejudices  of  tin1  residents  and  removed  the  Quarantine 
hospitals  far  out  upon  an  island  built  upon  some  shallow  ground.  The 
result  to  Staten  Island  rather  justified  the  conduct  of  its  people,  as 
thenceforth  manv  persons  of  wealth  bought  lands  for  eountrv-seats 
and  villas,  and  many  came  to  settle  on  the  island  as  permanent  resi- 
dent s. 

The  year  1860 — let  us  linger  over  it  as  the  last  year  of  pence  before 
so  sanguinary  ;i  war  was  made  notable  by  three  important  events, 
two  of  them  visits  to  our  shores  of  distinguished  personages,  and  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


3(>3 


third  that  of  a  remarkable  specimen  of  human  ingenuity.  On  June 
16,  18fi0,  there  landed  at  Castle  Garden  an  embassy  from  the  Empire 
of  Japan.  Since  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  Japan  had 
cut  herself  off  (after  a  brief  and  not  very  pleasant  experience  of  inter- 
course with  them)  from  all  communication  with  the  nations  of  Chris- 
tendom, and  had  excluded  their  representatives  from  her  soil,  with 
the  single  exception  of  the  Hollanders,  whom  they  permitted  to  retain 
a  "  factory,"  or  mercantile  station,  at  the  city  of  Nagasaki.  In  1852 
Commodore  M.  C.  Perry,  of  our  navy,  had  boldly  broken  in  upon  this 
reserve,  and  in  course  of  time  Japan  had  reopened  intercourse  with 
the  rest  of  the  world.  In  ISfiO  the  Japanese  Court  resolved  to  place 
this  intercourse  upon  a  specially  amicable  and  advantageous  basis 
with  the  United  States  by  means  of  a  treaty,  and  they  sent  out  a  dele- 
gation or  embassy  to  convey  the  treaty  to  our  shores.  On  March  27, 
1800,  they  landed  at  San  Francisco.  Thence  they  went  to  Washing- 
ton, and  in  June  they  reached  New  York.  They  were  received  at  Cas- 
tle Garden  by  the  Mayor  and  Corporation,  and  escorted  by  regiments 
of  the  militia  to  the  Metropolitan  Hotel,  on  Broadway  and  Prince 
street.  A  grand  serenade  was 
given  them  in  the  evening,  and 
illuminations  adorned  the  hotel 
and  the  buildings  in  the  vicinitv.     v  • 

'  r 

Two  davs  later  a  ball  was  given  ':  k 
in  their  honor.  Every  effort  was 
made  to  give  them  a  favorable  im- 
pression  of  the  city,  whose  mer-  jSfel?*- 
r-hants  were  eager  to  take  advant- 
age  of  the  treaty  to  open  new 
channels  of  trade.    The  Japanese  the  great  eastern. 

dignitaries  remained  until  July  1, 

when  they  started  on  their  journey  to  Europe  and  the  other  capitals 
of  Christendom. 

While  they  were  still  in  the  city  there  arrived  what  was  fondly 
called  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world — or  to  be  precise,  the  Eighth 
Wonder — the  newspapers  of  the  day  diligently  setting  forth  what  the 
other  seven  wonders  were,  so  that  the  people  might  by  uo  means  miss 
the  point  of  the  designation.  Yet  it  was  no  greater  wonder  than  the 
little  Clermont  of  1807.  The  Great  Eastern  was  a  monster  applica- 
tion of  the  principle  that  created  the  Clermont,  it  was  a  stage  in  the 
evolution  that  might  be  regarded  as  the  mastodonic.  Its  construction 
was  begun  in  1858,  and  the  progress  of  the  work  kept  before  the  peo- 
ple by  pictures  in  the  Illustrated  London  News,  eagerly  devoured  by 
young  and  old  in  New  York.  The  question  was  asked  again  and 
again.  "  When  will  she  come?  "  At  last  she  was  known  to  be  on  the 
ocean,  and  men  waited  breathlessly  for  her  appearance  in  the  harbor, 
wondering  whether  she  could  get  over  the  bar  at  Sandy  Hook.  On 


3(34 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


-Tune  28,  18G0,  she  arrived,  passed  through  The  Narrows  and  lay  ;ii 
anchor  in  the  North  Uiver,  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes.  Perhaps  some 
not  old  among  us  remember  her  on  a  later  visit,  when  we  were  school- 
boys, but  a  younger  generation  would  naturally  like  to  be  told  of  her 
dimensions  and  capacities.  She  was  fitted  with  paddle  wheels  and 
screw  both.  The  wheels  were  fiftj'-six  feet  in  diameter,  the  screw  pro- 
peller twenty-four  feet.  The  horse-power  developed  by  the  screw  en- 
gines was  about  six  thousand,  that  of  the  wheel  engines  about  four 
thousand.  There  were  five  smoke  stacks.  Of  her  six  masts,  the  three 
in  the  center  were  ship-rigged;  one  in  front  and  two  at  the  stern  were 
small  and  arranged  for  fore-and-aft  sails.  The  sides  of  the  ship  were 
of  iron.  Its  length  was  six  hundred  and  eighty  feet.  It  was  ar- 
ranged to  carry  eight  hundred  first-class  passengers,  two  thousand  of 
tin1  second  class,  and  one  thousand  two  hundred  third  class.  On  June 
17  she  sailed  from  Southampton,  the  highest  number  of  miles  run  in 
one  day  being  three  hundred  and  twenty-five:  as  she  went  by  the  long 
Southern  course  in  order  to  avoid  the  ice.  she  did  not  make  a  very 
quick  passage.  All  the  city  was  on  the  qui  vire  as  she  came  up  the 
Ray.  Having  had  to  wait  till  high  tide  at  2  o'clock  P.M.,  t<>  cross  the 
bar.  it  was  about  6  o'clock  when  she  reached  her  dock.  After  dis- 
charging her  passengers  and  cargo,  she  made  ready  to  receive  visits  of 
inspection,  and  thousands  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity.  In 
order  to  give  people  an  experience  of  her  sea-going  qualities,  an  ocean 
excursion  was  arranged  to  Cape  May.  The  excursion  took  place  on 
August  2,  but  was  somewhat  of  a  disappointment,  being  poorly  man- 
aged, so  that  the  people  complained  they  had  no  place  to  sloe])  in.  and 
that  they  were  almost  starved.  The  Great  Eastern  served  a  good  pur 
pose  when  employed  in  later  days  to  lay  the  Atlantic  Cable,  but  on  the 
whole  she  was  not  a  success,  except  as  a  curiosity  of  the  first  order. 
Tt  was  too  early  in  the  history  of  steamship  construction  to  make  her 
practically  serviceable.  The  modern  ocean  greyhounds  are  approach- 
ing her  in  size,  with  the  greater  advantage  of  attaining  twice  her 
speed. 

One  other  visitor  came  this  year.  In  October.  1800.  under  the  mod- 
est title  of  Baron  Renfrew,  the  eldest  son  of  Queen  Victoria  passed 
through  the  United  States,  and  was  welcomed  also  in  New  York  City. 
TTo  was  only  about  eighteen  or  nineteen  years  old.  and  his  title  ex- 
cused 1he  nation  from  paying  him  honors  due  to  a  royal  personage. 
"Rut  society  was  wild  over  the  chance  of  dancing  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales  de  facto,  if  not  in  name,  and  the  good  feeling  toward  the  excel 
lent  woman,  his  mother,  made  eivi*  ami  military  honors  an  appro- 
priate and  heartfelt  tribute  without  servility.  Trinity  Church  entered 
upon  the  race  to  do  the  young  Prince  honor,  with  magnificent  decora- 
tions of  the  pews  set  apart  for  him.  and  exquisite  prayer  books  spe- 
cially bound  and  ornamented  for  his  use.  and  presented  to  hint.  Tt 
was  an  acknowledgment  of  what  Trinity  corporation  owed  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


305 


munificence  of  the  Crown  of  England,  from  Queen  Auue  down.  After 
receptions  by  the  city  authorities,  a  ball  was  given  at  the  Academy  of 
Music  on  October  12.  Over  three  thousand  persons  were  present;  a 
tioor  was  Jaid  embracing  parquet  and  stage,  one  hundred  and  thirty 
five  feet  long  and  sixty-eight  feet  wide.  It  was  pronounced  to  be  the 
greatest  ball  that  had  ever  been  given  in  this  country.  Being  the  day 
of  the  capacious  and  expansive  crinoline,  the  rustle  of  the  circular 
garments  must  have  been  immense,  and  "all  went  merry  as  a  mar- 
riage bell." 

And  then  came  the  rumbling  of  the  distant. thunder.  Less  than  a 
month  after  this  gay  assembly  in  houor  of  the  youthful  heir  of  a 
t  hrone  which  he  has  not  yet  attained,  even  now  that  he  is  getting  old, 
there  passed  to  the  chair  of  the  Chief  Executive  of  this  Nation  a  man 
much  more  truly  a  king  among 
his  fellow  creatures.  In  Novem- 
ber, I860,  took  place  the  election 
which  made  Abraham  Lincoln 
President.  New  York  had  seen 
him  and  heard  his  voice.  The 
year  before  the  city  had  been 
rudely  shaken  out  of  its  security 
and  optimism.  It  learned  that  all 
was  uot  well,  that  a  conflict  and 
clash  must  sooner  or  later  come, 
when  it  heard  of  the  raid  on  Har- 
per's Ferry,  a  bold,  rash,  ill-ad- 
vised step  on  the  part  of  the  en- 
thusiast, John  Brown.  Yet  his 
bold  endurance  of  death — the  car- 
rying to  the  bitter  end  of  the  tech- 
nical justice  in  the  case  and  the 

braving  of  such  an  issue — showed  f  ^jfy$!tavi</CZi££io%' 

the  intensity  of  feeling,  the  irre- 
concilableness  of  the  conflict  on 
the  question  that  must  have  a  settlement  soon.  On  October  18,  1859, 
the  news  of  this  strange  episode  reached  New  York.  In  that  same 
month  a  few  gentlemen,  among  them  William  Cullen  Bryant,  sent  an 
invitation  to  Abraham  Lincoln  to  speak  in  New  York  some  time  during 
t  he  winter.  Lincoln's  fame  had  gone  all  through  the  country  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  famous  debates  with  Douglass  during  the  summer  of  1858. 
He  was  already  looming  up  as  the  inevitable  presidential  candidate, 
but  when  he  came  to  NewYrork  the  nomination  had  not  yet  been  made. 
On  Saturday,  February  25,  1860,  he  arrived  in  the  city.  On  the  next 
Monday  it  is  recorded  that  he  was  found  "  dressed  in  a  sleek  and 
shining  suit  of  new  black,  covered  with  very  apparent  creases  and 
wrinkles.    Of  course  the  great  Westerner  felt  he  must  be  a  little 


366 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


particular  as  to  his  outward  man  iu  such  a  fashion  center  as  the  Me- 
tropolis, and  the  careful  packing  had  preserved  the  novelty  of  Ids  gar- 
ments in  a  painfully  noticeable  manner.  When  he  appeared  before 
the  great  audience  "  he  felt  uneasy  in  his  new  clothes  and  a  strange 
place."  Matters  were  not  improved  by  the  rather  cool  introduction 
by  Bryant  as  "  an  eminent  citizen  of  the  West,  hitherto  known  t<>  you 
only  by  reputation."  The  friends  of  the  cause  in  the  great  city  on  the 
sea  were  a  little  uncertain  as  yet  regarding  this  rough  Western  dia- 
mond. But  when  Lincoln  fairly  got  into  his  subject,  clothes  and  em- 
barrassment were  soon  forgotten,  and  the  audience  were  entranced  by 
a  lucid  exposition  of  questions  that  had  agitated  and  divided  the 
minds  of  men.  These  were  discussed  with  a  power  of  argument  in 
support  of  that  which  was  best  in  human  liberty,  combined  with  an 
emphasis  upon  what  was  most  imperative  in  the  duty  of  federal 
union,  such  as  they  had  never  experienced  before.  "  The  rough  fellow 
from  the  crude  West,"  says  Prof.  .Morse,  "had  made  a  powerful  im- 
pression upon  the  cultivated  gentlemen  of  the  East."  In  the  conven- 
tion for  nominating  presidential  candidates,  w  idt  h  met  on  .May  16, 
I860,  the  first  ballot  gave  a  considerably  larger  number  of  votes  to  one 
of  New  York's  honored  sons.  ex-Governor  Seward,  than  to  Lincoln. 
Seward  was  still  in  the  race  at  the  second  ballot,  but  now  only  about 
three  votes  ahead;  while  at  the  third  Lincoln  had  passed  him  and  was 
within  one  and  one-half  votes  of  the  required  number,  whereupon  a 
transfer  of  four  votes  made  Lincoln  the  Republican  nominee,  lu  the 
election  in  November,  1860,  New  York  State  gave  him  fifty  thousand 
more  votes  than  Stephen  A.  Douglass,  the  Democratic  candidate. 
The  result  of  the  election  meant  war.  but  first  it  meant  disunion  In 
December,  1860,  the  first  State.  South  Carolina,  stepped  out  of  the 
compact;  others  followed  month  by  month  ami  week  by  week.  New 
York  City  found  its  gunshops  empty  of  guns  and  pistols;  they  had 
been  shipped  South  on  big  orders.  Tims  was  the  cloud  of  war  rising 
upon  the  horizon  of  disunion.  The  business  of  the  commercial  capital 
now  awoke  to  what  was  coming,  and  another  panic  was  on  hand; 
credit  refused;  gold  hoarded  and  kept  out  of  circulation;  the  banks 
helpful  but  cautious.  As  the  year  1860  took  its  departure,  destined 
to  take  peace  with  it  for  many  a  year,  t  he  city  numbered  SI  t,000  souls, 
a  mot  ley  mult  it  ude  not  easily  manageable,  and  apt  to  prove  refractory 
in  t  he  crisis  of  war.  lint  we  shrink  from  the  calamities  so  nearly  due. 
and  fondly  stop  to  linger  among  the  proofs  tin'  last  decade  was 
affording  that  New  York,  as  a  commercial  city,  with  bread-winning 
and  money-getting  so  prominent  in  its  make-up.  yet  had  many  among 
her  citizens  who  owned  it  true  that  "man  shall  not  Live  by  bread 
alone."  and  that  there  is  a  higher  life  than  that  of  the  workshop  or  the 
counl  ing-house. 

Yet  those  who  had  been  most  successful  in  money-getting,  whose 
particular  genius  had  been  the  amassing  of  enormous  wealth,  showed 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


:;<;t 


how  that  higher  life  was  not  ignored  by  them,  and  how  wealth  could 
be  made  the  minister  to  better  things.  The  most  conspicuous  instance 
of  this  was  the  erection  of  the  Astor  Library.  At  his  death,  in  .March, 
1848,  John  Jacob  Astor  was  found  to  have  bequeathed  $400,000  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  a  free  public  library.  It  w  as  incorporated 
in  January,  1S4!>,  Washington  Irving  and  Fitz-Greene  Ealleck  being 
among  the  trustees,  as  well  as  William  Ii.  Astor,  the  millionaire's  son. 


THE  ASTOR  LIBRARY. 


and  Charles  Astor  Bristed,  his  grandson.  Mr.  Astor  had  always 
shown  an  interest  in  art  and  letters.  His  encouragement  of  the  drama 
has  been  noticed.  His  grandson,  Bristed,  who  was  a  writer  of  no 
mean  ability,  was  a  great  favorite  of  his,  and  he  was  upon  terms  of  the 
most  familiar  friendship  with  Irving,  who  lived  at  his  villa  near  the 
East  River  while  he  was  writing  "  Astoria,"  the  story  of  Astor's  at- 
tempt to  establish  a  fur  station  in  Oregon.  The  ground  selected  for 
the  library  was  part  of  the  old  Yauxhall  Garden  property,  bought  by 
Astor  in  1803,  where  Lafayette  and  Astor  places  had  now  been  laid 
out.  It  was  built  in  the  style  of  the  royal  palace  at  Florence,  but  on 
a  very  much  smaller  scale  than  the  structure  now  upon  the  spot.  In 
1858,  and  again  later,  by  the  munificence  of  William  B.  Astor,  addi- 
tions were  made  to  the  building,  more  than  doubling  its  size.  Early 
in  February,  1854,  the  Library  was  opened  to  the  public.  In  1864 
there  were  one  hundred  thousand  volumes  upon  its  shelves.  The  aid 
this  library  has  afforded  to  scholars,  writers,  scientists,  students  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


art  of  all  kinds,  it  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to  estimate.  Every  oiie 
has  free  aeeess  to  its  treasures,  aud  to-day  it  is  hard  to  mention  a  book 
on  any  topic  not  found  in  its  collection.  No  book  is  allowed  to  be  taken 
home  from  the  library;  but  from  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  four  or 
five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  all  facilities  for  the  study  of  its  volumes 
are  given  there.  Upon  recommendation  from  some  person  or  firm  of  re- 
pute, the  privilege  of  studying  in  its  alcoves  is  granted  to  the  student, 
in  which  case  he  is  permitted  to  roam  all  over  the  building  at  his 
pleasure,  and  collect  himself  the  books  he  needs  upon  his  table,  to  be 
left  for  as  long  a  period  as  he  needs  daily  to  return  to  the  study  in 
hand,  li  w  as  here  that  Captain  Mahan  spent  a  considerable  portion 
of  his  time  in  1891  laboring  on  his  celebrated  work  "  Sea  Power  in 
History,"'  aud  many  another  epoch-making  volume  has  had  its 
learning  hived  here. 

The  beginnings  of  the  (Society  Library  in  the  eighteenth  century 
have  already  been  duly  noticed  in  the  proper  place.  We  saw  it  last 
established  in  the  first  home  of  its  own  ou  the  corner  of  Cedar  and 
Nassau  streets  in  1 71)5.  Thence  the  pressure  of  business  drove  it  in 
L836,  when  a  building  was  erected  on  Broadway  at  the  corner  of 
Leonard  Street,  to  which  the  books  were  removed  in  1840.  But  an- 
other move  was  necessary  in  the  decade  we  have  now  reached.  In 
1853  the  Broadway  building  was  sold,  the  books  temporarily  pre 
served  iu  the  Bible  House,  and  in  May,  1850,  removed  to  their  presenl 
home  on  University  1'lace,  between  lUth  and  13th  streets.  To 
derive  the  benefits  of  the  institution  one  must  pay  a  membership 
fee.  Nevertheless  it  stands  a  monument  to  the  early  appreciation  in 
the  community  of  the  value  and  necessity  of  encouraging  t  he  intellec- 
tual life.  The  happy  thought  of  a  lew  young  men  in  1751.  it  goes  still 
farther  back  and  is  the  memorial  of  the  city's  estimate  of  the  value  of 
learning  as  loug  ago  as  1701),  when  its  nucleus  was  formed  by  the 
books  given  to  the  city  by  the  Rev.  John  Sharpe,  which  the  city  gladly 
accepted  and  cherished  as  a  library  for  the  people's  use 

There  was,  however,  au  evidence  of  a  still  closer  connection  be- 
tween  business  and  books  in  our  commercial  town.  On  November  3, 
L820,  young  clerks  aud  office  boys  downtown  read  this  notice  on  a 
prominent  bulletin  board:  "  Notice  to  Merchants'  Clerks  and  Appren 
tices.  Those  young  gentlemen  who  are  disposed  to  form  a  .Mercantile 
Library  and  evening  reading-room,  are  desired  to  attend  a  meeting 
for  that  purpose  at  the  Tontiue  Coffee  House,  on  Thursday  evening 
next  al  seven  o'clock,  when  a  plan  of  a  Library  and  Association  will 
he  presented  for  I  heir  consideration.  The  young  men  of  South  Street. 
Front,  Water,  I'earl,  Maiden  Lane,  and  Broadway,  are  particularly 
desired  to  attend.-'  It  need  cause  no  surprise  that  the  original  of  this 
poster,  I  lie  beginning  of  its  history,  is  sacredly  preserved  at  the  Mer- 
cantile Library  to  this  day.  Its  constitution  gave  the  management 
of  the  library  when  organized  to  merchants'  clerks,  while  member- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


ship  was  accorded  to  all  upon  the  payment  of  a  fee,  slightly  larger  for 
the  general  public  than  for  clerks.  On  February  12,  1821,  the  library 
opened  its  doors  at  49  Fulton  Street,  occupying  one  room,  and  pos- 
sessing just  seven  hundred  volumes,  most  of  them  presented.  Its 
growth  and  migrations  are  interesting.  In  1S26  its  six  thousand 
books  and  enlarged  membership  needed  larger  quarters,  which  were 
furnished  in  the  Harper  Brothers'  building  on  Cliff  Street.  When 
prosperity  seem  to  justify  the  erection  of  a  building,  a  modification 
of  the  constitution  needed  to  be  made,  as  men  of  property  had  to  take 
the  place  of  merchants'  clerks.  Accordingly  fin  association  of  mer- 
chants was  now  organized  to  purchase  and  hold  the  property  and 
building  needed.  This  company  took  the  name  of  the  "  Clinton  Hall 
Association."  The  building  erected,  Clinton  Hall,  stood  on  the  corner 
of  Nassau  and  Beekman  streets  (where  Temple  Court  is  now),  facing 
the  old  Brick  Presbyterian  Church. 
It  was  dedicated  November  2, 
1830.  With  the  movement  of  dwell- 
ings and  churches  before  the  swell- 
ing tide  of  business,  the  libraries 
had  to  migrate  upward  also,  and  in 
1854  (five  years  after  the  famous 
riot),  the  Italian  Opera  House  on 
Astor  Place  was  bought  by  the  As- 
sociation, and  the  name  of  Clinton 
Hall  transferred  to  it.  In  1890- 
1891  that  historic  building  was  torn 
down  and  a  magnificent  modern 
edifice  reared  on  the  site,  the  pres- 
ent home  of  the  Library.  A  very 
large  portion  of  the  collection  is  de- 
voted to  light  reading,  mainly  fic- 
tion, as  reading  must  be  a  recreation 

rather  than  a  labor  for  young  men  weary  with  the  duties  of  the  day. 
But  the  library  is  rich  also  in  works  on  every  other  subject,  history, 
theology,  science,  art.  Opportunities  for  scholarly  work  are  afforded 
by  the  reference  department,  where  books  are  furnished  to  members 
to  be  used  in  the  reading-room,  the  part  of  that  room  set  aside  for  such 
work  being  also  lined  with  shelves  containing  dictionaries  and  ency- 
clopedias of  all  kinds.  Certain  valuable  books  that  are  rare  or  out  of 
print  are  not  allowed  to  circulate,  but  can  be  consulted  in  the  refer- 
ence-room. Another  library  in  existence  at  this  period  had  in  view 
the  mental  improvement  of  youthful  workers.  The  Mechanics'  or  Ap- 
prentices' Library  was  established  in  1S20  by  a  society  which  had  be- 
fore secured  schooling  for  the  children  of  deceased  mechanics  and 
tradesmen.  It  opened  on  Chambers  Street,  removed  to  472  Broadway 
in  1832.  where  it  remained  till  after  the  war,  and  has  since  removed  to 


F1TZGREENE  HALLECK. 


370 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


its  present  building  at  18  East  16th  Street.  The  origin  and  some 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  New  York  Historical  Library  have  been  duly 
traced.  During  this  period,  in  the  eventful  year  1857,  fifty-three  years 
after  its  organization,  it  took  possession  of  its  present  home  on  Second 
Avenue,  corner  ilth  Street,  facing  the  historic  St.  Mark's-in-the- 
Bowery,  on  the  side  where  the  stone  tablet  recording  Stuyvesant's 
burial  is  sunk  into  the  foundation  wall.  It  wandered  about  from 
place  to  place  before  this,  occupying  rooms  in  the  City  Hall  till  1809; 
in  t  lie  ( rovernmenl  Eouse,  built  for  tin-  President  on  the  site  of  the  old 
fort,  until  1815;  in  various  other  buildings  until  1857.  Then  the  grow- 
ing wealth  of  the  citizens  composing  its  membership  and  the  gratify- 
ing interest  in  historical  subjects  that  increasingly  took  possession 
of  the  public,  enabled  the  Society  to  purchase  ground  in  a  fashionable 
quarter  and  to  put  up  a  handsome  stone  building,  as  another  monu- 
ment to  the  city's  higher  life. 

An  advance  was  also  made  during  this  period  in  the  system  of  pub- 
lic education.  The  schools  were  already  the  model  of  the  country  and 
the  world;  but  even  yet  the  city  was  not  satisfied  with  the  advantages 
of  education  which  its  youth  were  enjoying.  In  1847  the  Board  of  Ed- 
ucation addressed  a  memorial  to  the  Legislature  asking  that  the  sys- 
tem under  their  care  might  be  so  extended  by  law  as  to  permit  t  hem  to 
establish  a  free  academy  or  college  for  the  benefit  of  voting  persons 
who  had  passed  through  the  common  schools.  The  Legislature  passed 
the  act  in  May,  1817.  but  with  the  proviso  then  usual  and  necessary 
that  a  vote  of  the  people  of  the  city  be  had  on  the  measure.  On  June 
9,  1817.  the  question  was  submitted  to  the  citizens  with  the  result 
that  more  than  nineteen  thousand  voted  for  it.  and  only  thirty-four 
hundred  against  it.  A  site  was  secured  on  the  corner  of  Twenty- 
third  Street  and  Lexington  Avenue,  and  a  spacious  and  tasteful  build- 
ing erected  upon  it.  In  January.  1819,  the  Free  Academy,  as  it  was 
then  called,  was  ready  to  receive  scholars.  In  1851  the  Legislature 
gave  it  all  the  power  and  privileges  of  a  college,  and  in  18<><i  the  name 
was  changed  to  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Dr.  Horace 
Webster  was  president  of  the  Academy  or  College  until  1809.  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  the  present  incumbent,  General  Alexander  S. 
Webb,  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  who  had  distinguished  himself  in 
the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  The  conditions  of  entrance  were:  Age, 
fourteen  years;  residence  in  the  city;  at  least  one  year's  attendance 
at  one  of  the  public  schools  of  the  city,  and  an  entrance  examination 
in  all  the  branches  taught  in  the  schools.  It  thus  opened  the  way  for 
a  college  educal ion  to  the  poorest  children  in  the  city,  to  such  at  least 
as  could  afford  to  go  through  five  more  years  of  support  by  their  fami- 
lies without  becoming  themselves  wage-earners  to  help  along  the  rest. 

In  the  year  L857  began  the  excellent  work  of  Cooper  Institute,  af- 
fording free  lectures  on  scientific,  industrial,  and  other  subjects,  and 
free  instruction  in  evening  classes  in  technical,  mechanical,  and  busi- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


371 


ness  branches;  and  in  drawing,  artistic,  archited  ural,  or  engineering. 
Peter  Cooper,  the  prominent  merchant  and  philanthropist,  himself 
beginning  life  as  a  poor,  uneducated  boy,  put  up  the  building  at  a  cost 
of  $000,000,  filling  up  the  triangle  formed  by  Third  and  Fourth  Ave- 
nues, and  Eighth  (Street,  or  Astor  Place.  The  Young  Men's  <  5hris1  tan 
Association,  which,  all  hough  primarily  a  religious  institution,  aims  to 
meet  almost  the  same  object  by  its  evening  classes  and  its  library, 
although  charging  a  moderate  membership  fee,  was  organized  in  1852. 
Its  library  also  contains  some  notable  and  valuable  features. 

This,  too,  was  the  age  of  the  great  literary  monthlies.  Several  mag- 
azines had  made  their  appearance  between  L823  and  1832,  but  they 
all  died  in  infancy.  The  first  one  to  survive  thai  lender  period  was 
the  Knickerbocker  Magazine,  begun  in  1833.  It  had  a  blue  cover  repre- 
senting old  Father  Knickerbocker  in  full  colonial  toggery,  not  omit- 
ting the  ever-present  pipe.  This  maga- 
zine held  its  ground  in  solitary  glory  for 
more  than  a  dozen  years,  when  a  rival 
started  up  which  is  still  in  the  most  vig- 
orous kind  of  existence,  while  Knicker- 
bocker is  known  only  to  the  antiquary. 
It  has  been  seen  that  Mayor  James  Har- 
per began  the  printing  business  with 
three  brothers  in  1818.  In  1847  the  en- 
terprising quartet  conceived  the  idea  of 
a  monthly  literary  magazine,  and  Har- 
per's Monthly  began  its  career.  At  first 
foreign  authors  were  specially  solicited 
to  write  for  it,  and  many  of  Dickens's 
monumental  stories  appeared  serially 
first  in  Harper's  in  this  country.  Later 
it  became  more  patriotic  in  its  literary 
ventures.  It  undertook  early  to  procure  the  finest  results  in  wood  en- 
graving, and  it  is  largely  due  to  the  friendly  rivalry  between  it 
and  later  contemporaries  that  this  branch  of  art  has  attained 
such  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  In  1853  the  building  then  oc- 
cupied by  the  firm  on  Franklin  Square  was  destroyed  by  fire, 
causing  a  loss  of  about  a  million  dollars,  while  six  hundred  peo- 
ple were  thrown  out  of  employment.  But  their  business  had  at- 
tained such  proportions  that  even  this  great  loss  did  not  crip- 
ple them.  The  very  next  year  they  erected  a  large,  absolutely 
fireproof  building  on  the  site,  covering  half  an  acre  of  ground.  Here 
all  the  work  necessary  for  the  production  of  books  is  done,  and  over 
one  thousand  hands  receive  employment.  Before  the  end  of  the  de- 
cade Harper's  Weekly  supplied  the  illustrated  news  that  had  hitherto 
only  come  from  London,  and  its  pictures  of  the  war  in  Italy  in  1859 
were  particularly  appreciated  by  old  and  young  in  the  city.    Up  to 


CHARLES  F.  HOFFMAN. 


372 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


1844  the  Weekly  Mirror  of  George  1*.  Monis  had  furnished  a  few  faint 
and  feeble  wood  cuts  of  a  primitive  style,  not  in  the  least  to  be  com- 
pared to  what  now  came  from  the  Harpers.  In  1853  another  famous 
publishing  house  started  Put  minis  Monthly  Magazine,  with  Charles  V. 
Briggs,  George  William  Curtis,  and  Parke  Godwin  as  ;i  formidable 
trio  to  compel  success.  But  somehow  it  failed  in  1857,  a  tine  feature  of 
the  catastrophe  being  that  G.  W.  Curtis,  by  heroically  assuming  and 
paying  a  debt  that  did  not  come  upon  him  through  his  fault,  was  per- 
mitted to  repeat  in  American  literary  history  1  he  noble  conduct  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott.  At  about  the  same  time  with  the  Knickerbocker  began 
the  American  Monthly  Magazine,  but  it  ceased  in  1858,  when  its  editor 
committed  suicide.  In  addition  to  the  existence  of  the  periodicals,  it 
was  a  sign  of  the  higher  life  of  the  town  that  lectures  by  eminently 
learned  or  eloquent  speakers  were  frequent,  and  were  attended  by 

crowds  thai  tilled  and  more  than 
tilled  the  audience-rooms.  Dr. 
Hawks,  on  "The  Period  of  Wash- 
ington," was  considered  a  great 
treat.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  drew 
crowded  houses  to  hear  his  words 
of  wit  and  wisdom.  Emerson's 
metaphysical  and  slightly  puzzling 
disquisitions  were  none  too  much 
for  the  people  that  througed  the 
hall  of  the  Historical  Society.  Ed- 
ward Everett,  most  polished  of 
\  speakers,  was  a  great  favorite. 
There  were  also  readings  from 
authors,  that  drew  select  audi- 
ences. Dickens  was  most  heartily 
welcomed  as  he  read  his  inimitable 
scenes  or  characters;  so  was  Mrs. 
Fanny  Kemble  and  her  selections 
from  Shakespeare. 
New  York  possessed  a  galaxy  of  authors  and  poets  of  her  own  of 
whom  she  might  justly  be  proud,  amid  all  her  commercial  supremacy; 
and  that  they  found  a  congenial  home  within  her  precincts,  showed 
that  they  were  appreciated  and  honored  by  their  fellow-citizens.  The 
lion  among  them  all  was  of  course  Washington  Irving.  He  died 
nearly  at  the  end  of  this  decade  in  1850.  greatly  lamented,  because 
greatly  beloved.  "No  one  ever  lived  a  more  beautiful  life."  says 
Tuckerman,  "  no  one  ever  left  less  to  regret  in  life;  no  one  ever  carried 
with  him  to  the  grave  a  more  universal  affection,  respect,  and  sor- 
row." At  one  time  Irving  lived  on  the  corner  of  State  and  Bridge 
Streets,  facing  Battery  Park  and  the  Bay;  later  he  occupied  a  com- 
fortable house  on  the  corner  of  Sixteenth  Street  and  Irving  Place. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  A  E\Y  YORK. 


thus  uamed  from  this  circumstance.  He  was  by  1'ar  the  must  famous 
author  of  the  day,  excepting  Cooper,  but  Cooper  had  made  himself 
disliked,  while  li  ving's  genial  temper  never  excited  any  oue's  hostil- 
ity, it  was  with  great  delight  and  pride  that  his  townsmen  learned 
of  his  having  been  appointed  Minister  to  Spain.  James  K.  Paulding, 
living  at  i<  Whitehall  Street,  at  one  time  partner  with  him  in  the 
"  Salmagundi  "  papers,  also  received  recognition  from  the  adminisi  ra- 
tion by  being  made  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  In  1850  all  of  Cooper's 
sixty-seven  works  had  been  published,  and  some  posthumous  publica- 
tions carried  the  number  to  seventy-one.  In  September,  1851,  he  died 
at  Cooperstown.  But  he  had  belonged  to  New  York  City  all  his  liter- 
ary life,  beginning  with  "  Precaution,"  written  at  Mamaroneck.  In 
New  York  most  of  his  tales  were  published,  even  though  some  of  them 
had  tirst  seen  the  light  in  Europe.  It  was  with  James  Watson  Webb, 
and  the  editors  of  the  Tribune  and  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  that  he 
had  his  famous  libel  suits,  managing  his  own  cases  in  court  with  con- 
summate skill  and  indomitable  pluck,  and  generally  winning  them, 
teaching  the  freespoken  editors  to  be  a  little  more  mindful  of  saying 
hard  things  and  assailing  irreproachable  reputations,  however  pro- 
voking a  man  might  be.  For  indeed  it  is  difficult  even  at  this  distance 
of  time  to  read  without  a  shiver  Cooper's  strictures  on  the  crudities 
and  vulgarities  of  American  society.  He  may  have  meant  well,  and 
no  foreign  foe  could  assail  American  men  and  manners  without  draw- 
ing down  upon  himself  sledge-hammer  blows  from  the  prolific  and 
ready  pen  of  our  novelist.  But,  nevertheless,  these  books  are  exas- 
perating reading.  Their  extravagant  denunciation  of  the  merest 
foibles  neutralized  the  good  they  might  have  done.  Good  humor  while 
just  as  searching,  would  have  been  more  edifying.  But  as  Cooper  had 
no  humor,the  seriousness  of  his  tunc  made  him  appear  bitterly  hosl  ilj 
when  in  reality  he  was  only  paternally  anxious  to  improve  our  race. 
Still  he  was  a  man  of  mark,  and  his  passage  across  the  stage  of  New 
York  literary  life  tended  to  confirm  the  conviction  that  America  had 
won  for  herself  a  place  in  the  republic  of  letters.  It  is  but  fair  that 
among  New  York  literary  men  should  be  found  one  with  a  name  re- 
minding us  of  its  origin.  New  Ainsterdam  had  had  its  poets,  Jacob 
Steendam  in  the  vernacular,  and  Domine  Selyns  both  in  that  and  in 
Latin.  Cuban  Crommelin  Verplanck,  in  all  three  parts  of  his  cogno- 
men, smacked  of  the  Dutch.  He  was  a  writer  of  elegance  and  versa- 
tility, and  none  the  less  active  in  public  affairs.  From  a  Professor- 
ship in  the  Episcopal  Seminary,  he  turned  to  politics,  and  became  a 
Member  of  Congress.  He  ran  once  for  Mayor  on  an  independent  tic- 
ket, but  the  "  regulars  "  got  the  place.  He  served  till  his  death  at  81 
(in  INTO)  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Emigration.  One  of  the  de- 
parted periodicals — the  Talisman,  an  illustrated  annual,  was  edited 
and  issued  by  him.  He  gave  particular  study  to  Shakespeare,  pub- 
lishing an  edition  of  his  plays  in  two  volumes  with  prefaces  to  each 


:574 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


drama,  which  are  freely  quoted  in  Kolfe's  recent  and  valuable  edi- 
tion  of  Shakespeare  in  small  separate  volumes.  At  one  time  he  lived 
on  Pearl  Street,  some  four  or  five  doors  below  Eanover  Square.  Al- 
together, New  York  has  not  often  looked  upon  his  like.  Among  the 
literary  lights  of  New  York  may  also  be  noted  with  especial  pride  the 
historian  of  the  United  States,  George  Bancroft.  The  first  volume  of 
his  history  was  published  in  1834,  and  by  1840  the  first  three  had  ap- 
peared. The  solidity  and  power  of  these  volumes  at  once  gave  Mr. 
Bancroft  a  commanding  position  in  the  land.  Honors  of  a  public  na- 
ture were  showered  upon  him.  President  Van  Buren  in  L838  made 
him  ( 'oUector  of  I  he  Port  of  Boston.  Mr.  Polk  gave  him  the  portfolio 
of  the  navy  in  1N4<>.  and  later  in  the  same  year  made  him  Minister  of 
the  United  States  to  England.    On  his  return  in  1849  he  made  New 

York  City  his  residence,  resuming  there 
his  work  on  the  History.  lit  1852  he 
published  Vol.  IV;  in  L853,  Vol.  V,  and 
in  L854,  Vol.  VI.  He  frequently  was 
asked  to  give  addresses  before  the  New 
York  Historical  Society,  his  most  bril- 
liant one  being  considered  that  at  the 
celebration  of  the  Society's  half  century 
of  existence,  in  18.~>4.  on  "  The  Necessity, 
the  Reality,  and  the  Promise  of  the 
Progress  of  the  Human  Uace."  He  de- 
livered several  commemorative  dis- 
courses, one  on  Prescott  and  one  on 
Irving,  upon  their  death  in  L859.  He 
served  with  Irving  and  Bryant  on  the 
Central  Park  Commission,  and  his  hi- 
lt pest  in  art  was  manifested  in  an  able 
discourse  on  the  "  <  Jult  are,  Support,  and 
( >bjed  of  An  in  a  Republic,"  in  L852. 

The  list  of  poets  must  begin  with  Fit/.  Creene  Halleck.  He  was 
early  identified  with  New  York  City,  as  we  know,  for  we  saw  him 
skating  in  a  familiar  way  with  the  future  King  "William  IV.  on  the 
Collect  Pond  in  1784.  But  unfortunately  one  who  claims  to  be  his 
biographer-in-ordinary,  is  so  uncertain  of  his  dates  that  after  making 
this  interesting  statement,  with  the  additional  flourish  of  a  life-saving 
episode,  he  calmly  tells  us  on  another  page  I  hat  he  tirst  came  to  New 
York  in  1811.  All  through  his  career  he  resided  in  New  York,  his 
poetic  triumphs  and  his  personal  attractiveness  giving  zest  to  liter- 
ary life  in  the  metropolis.   He  may  be  far  from  being  "  the  greatest 

poel  the  New  World  has  yet  produced."  bul  we  are  grateful  lhai  he 
helped  along  to  give  tone  to  t  he  higher  life  of  the  city.  ( 'harles  Pernio 
Hoffman  was  a  worthy  brother  poet.  At  the  Cafe"  Franc  ais  in  Warren 
Street,  the  two  congenial  spirits  were  constant  visitors.    Many  lyrics. 


(JULIAN  (  .    VERPLANI  K . 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


:;v> 


born  of  the  stirring  scenes  in  the  Avar  with  Mexico,  came  from  his  pen; 
"  his  songs  have  the  melody  of  music,  and  his  literary  sketches  strung 
drawing  and  rich  colors."  By  birth  and  education  (at  Columbia)  Hoff- 
man was  a  New  York  man  through  and  through.  N.  I*.  Willis,  al- 
though born  in  .Maine,  was  in  New  York,  publishing  with  George  1'. 
Morris  the  New  York  Mirror,  when  he  was  but  twenty-two  years  old. 
As  some  one  says  of  him:  "  Like  Pope  *  he  lisped  in  numbers,  for  the 
numbers  came.'  But  unlike  Pope,  he  wrote  almost  as  beautifully  and 
faultlessly  in  his  lispings  as  at  the  latest  period  of  his  life."  'With 
what  vividness  stand  before  our  eyes,  as  our  schoolreaders  of  a  gene- 
ration ago  took  care  that  they  should,  his  stately  scriptural  poems, 
written  when  he  was  still  at  Yale  College.  He  was  a  master  of  prose 
also,  and  tried  many  ventures  in  the  newspaper  line.  A  recent  writer 
in  a  book-review  of  the  day,  from  personal  reminiscenses  of  the  poet, 
places  him  in  a  somewhat  unexpected  light:  "  It  is  not  strange  that 
those  who  saw  Willis  superficially  considered  him  only  a  dandy  and  a 
trifler,  for  he  was  a  dandy.  He  belonged  to  that  age  and  that  imme- 
diate phase  of  civilization  which  cropped  out  in  England  after  George 
IV.  had  made  all  the  men  in  love  with  small  waists  and  flowing  neck- 
gear."  Much  serious  work  came  from  him,  however,  and  the  galaxy 
of  New  York  authors  cannot  afford  to  lose  this  "  bright  particular 
star."  Wit  h  "Willis  is  always  inseparably  associated  George  P.  Morris, 
who  wore  also  one  of  the  high  military  titles  that  are  now  so  common 
and  often  so  meaningless,  that  of  General.  He  came  to  New  York 
from  Philadelphia,  and  was  one  of  the  few  men  who  reaped  a  financial 
harvesi  from  literature  in  those  days,  his  drama  "  Briar  Cliff,"  based 
on  Revolutionary  events,  clearing  him  some  thirty-five  hundred  dol- 
lars. This  good  fortune,  as  per  contrast,  makes  one  think  of  another 
brilliant  star  that  shone  in  the  literary  sky  of  New  York.  Edga 
Allan  Poe  was  in  the  city  at  various  times.  He  lived  here  at  the  time 
of  his  beautiful  wife's  death,  in  1847.  The  little  cottage  where  they 
loved  and  suffered  from  hunger  and  cold,  on  the  Kingsbridge  Boad 
at  Fordham,  still  stands,  and  it  is  a  sight  to  make  one's  heart  ache  to 
think  that  the  author  of  "  The  Raven  "  was  reduced  to  such  a  pass  as 
to  be  compelled  to  live  here;  and  even  here  to  be  without  the  means 
of  getting  the  most  necessary  comforts  for  his  sick  wife.  The  cottage 
has  been  bought  by  the  Shakespeare  Club,  and  the  danger  of  its  de- 
struction is  past,  but  it  will  have  to  be  moved  out  of  the  way  of  the  de- 
mon of  improvement  which  is  coming  to  widen  the  old  road.  If  mis- 
fortune as  well  as  madness  is  to  genius  nearly  allied,  and  we  needed  a 
Burns  or  a  Chatterton  to  offset  our  rather  uniformly  prosperous  and 
decorous  literary  lights,  poor  Poe  furnished  the  requisite  exception. 
Joseph  Rodman  Drake  passed  away  long  before  the  present  decade 
had  arrived,  but  he  belongs  to  the  coterie  of  authors  whom  New  York 
may  fairly  claim  as  her  own.  Halleck  and  Drake  were  strongly 
bound  together  in  personal  affection,  and  in  literary  work;  their  joint 


376  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

production  were  the"  Ooaker  Papers,"  good-natured  criticisms  of  the 
ways  of  the  age  and  society,  in  verse.  Drake  died  in  1820,  only  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  but  "  The  Culprit  Fay,"  and  his  lines  on  the  nation's 
flag,  have  made  his  name  one  which  neither  the  city  nor  the  country 
shall  willingly  let  die.  And  still  does  William  Cullen  Bryant  live 
among  us  in  his  name  and  by  his  work.  "  Thanatopsis,"  the  fruit  of 
early  years,  and,  while  nobly  supplemented,  perhaps  never  surpassed 
by  later  productions, — was  already  published  before  he  came  to  New 
Yoi  k.  This  was  in  1825,  and  until  he  died  in  1878,  fiftj-three  years 
later,  he  was  thoroughly  identified  with  the  literary  and  social  life  of 
the  city.  The  next  year  he  became  identified  with  the  Evening  Post,  so 
that  the  mention  of  one  calls  up  the  thought  of  the  other  to  this  day; 

and  the  tone  given  to  the  paper  by  his 
connection  with  it  still  lingers  as  a  tra- 
dition, and  should  help  il  to  retain  it  as 
a  fact.  In  many  ways  affairs  of  a  public 
nature  received  the  stimulus  of  his  sup- 
port, by  written  words  or  personal  ac- 
tivity. It  was  he  who  presided  at  the 
Lincoln  meeting,  and  at  the  public 
gathering  in  honor  of  Cooper's  memory 
he  began  that  series  of  scholarly,  elo- 
quent, and  popular  addresses  on  de- 
ceased  literary  worthies  which  would 
have  been  suffieienl  to  give  him  a  high 
rank  as  an  author,  apart  front  the  effu- 
sions of  his  muse.  W  hat  is  said  of  the 
Cooper  address  might  be  repeated  of 
those  he  delivered  on  the  others:  "not 
only  the  most  eloquent  tribute  that  has 
been  paid  to  the  dead  author,  it  has  also  remained,  during  all  these 
years,  the  fullest  account  of  the  life  he  lived,  and  the  work  he 
did."  City  and  State  have  indeed  delighted  to  honor  Bryant  as 
one  of  her  own.  Nor  must  we  forget  in  tins  list  of  authors  drawn  to 
New  York  if  not  born  and  reared  there,  the  many  female  writers  of 
high  repute.  Lucretia  .Maria  Davidson,  who  was  of  an  earlier  age. 
having  died  in  L825,  and  her  sister  Margaret  .Miller  Davidson,  who  fol- 
lowed her  to  the  grave  twelve  years  later,  received  appreciative  atten- 
tion and  aid  from  .Morse  and  Irving.  Lydia  .Maria  Child  came 
to  New  York  in  1841,  the  first  perhaps  of  women  to  become  noted  as 
a  correspondent  of  newspapers.  Her  letters  and  tales  and  romances 
in  support  of  her  anti-slavery  views  were  hailed  with  pleasure  DJ  a 
large  circle  of  readers.  Susan  and  Anna  B.  Warner  found  that  New- 
York  publishers  and  the  New  York  public  were  friendly  to  conscien- 
tious literary  work,  and  about  this  time  (184!)  and  18.">3)  came  to  live 
among  such  hospitable  surroundings.    Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Kirkland  be- 


-TOSEI'Il    K.  DRAKE. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


377 


gan  an  industrious  trade  at  authorship  here  in  1839  which  lasted 
through  all  this  period;  while,  last  but  not  least,  it  musl  be  noted  by 
the  loyal  denizen  of  the  metropolis  that  Alice  and  Phoebe  ( !ary,  sweet 
and  tender  and  plaintive  in  their  song,  came  to  enroll  their  names 
upon  our  list  of  literary  worthies  in  the  yens  L850  and  L851  respect- 
ively. There  might  be  an  "Augustan  Age  of  American  literature" 
studding  the  sky  over  Boston  with  stars  of  the  first  magnii  ude.  There 
Emerson  and  Longfellow  and  Holmes  and  Lowell  and  Motley  and 
many  more,  might  be  doing  t  he  work  that  will  nev<  1  be  lost.  Yei  even 
Hawthorne  depended  largely  upon  New  York  for  the  appreciation  of 
his  literary  labors.  The  circle  of  ant  Inn  s  here  has  given  quite 
as  pronounced  a  character  to  American  literature,  and  produced 
fruits  that  time  will  only  mellow 
and  enrich.  And  indeed  one  fact 
can  not  well  be  disputed.  The  two 
American  authors  whose  books 
were  first  read  abroad  were  New 
York  men,  Irving  and  Cooper.  If 
this  constituted  (according  to  Syd- 
ney Smith's  famous  sneer)  a  test  of 
literary  quality  beyond  anything 
else,  then  we  may  well  agree  with 
Mr.  Eoosevelt  when  he  says:  "  New 
York  may  fairly  claim  to  have  been 
the  birthplace  of  American  litera- 
ture." 

An  amusing  anecdote  is  told  by 
"Felix  Oldboy"  which  illustrates 
better  than  anything  else,  what  was 
the  view  taken  of  art  by  some  of 
New  York's  best  society,  before  the  middle  of  the  century.  A  young 
artist  had  made  love,  and  that  with  "reciprocity."  to  a  cousin  of 
Charles  F.  Briggs,  one  of  Putnam's  editors.  "  Society  w  as  shocked. 
.  .  .  Society  drew  the  line  at  artists,  and  did  not  recognize 
them  as  eligible."  The  father  of  the  voting  lady  therefore  put  in 
his  veto  upon  the  affair.  "  One  day  as  Mr.  Briggs  entered  the  house, 
the  entire  chorus  of  its  women,"  the  mother  and  a  bevy  of  sisters, 
"threw  themselves  upon  him  and  begged  him  to  remonstrate  with 
Emily  and  save  the  family  honor.  'The  family  honor.'  said  Briggs, 
'what  has  Emily  been  doing  now?'  'Doing,'  shrieked  the  chorus. 
'  she's  going  to  disgrace  us  all  by  marrying  an  artist! '  '  Pooh,'  came 
the  quick  reply,  '  he  isn't  enough  of  an  artist  to  make  il  anything  of  a 
disgrace.'  When  the  sibylline  utterance  of  Briggs  w  as  carried  to  the 
father,  he  was  so  amused  by  it  that  he  withdrew  his  opposition  to  the 
marriage."  But  we  have  seen  that  art  as  a  profession  had  already 
organized  itself,  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  having  founded   1he  Na- 


:;ts 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tional  Academy  of  Design  as  early  as  1820,  remaining  its  President 
until  1842,  Avhen  all  his  time  was  needed  for  developing-  the  telegraph 
s}  stem  of  the  country.  We  come  upon  the  name  of  Uobert  B.  Living- 
ston again  in  a  movement  for  the  elevation  of  his  fellow-citizens  in 
this  connection.  In  1801  while  Minister  to  France  he  urged  in  letters, 
under  the  inspiration  of  what  he  saw  in  Paris,  that  a  fund  be  raised 
for  the  establishment  of  a  public  gallery  and  an  art-school.  As  a  re- 
sult the  New  York  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  was  founded  in  L802,  which 
obtained  a  charter  in  1808  under  the  name  "  American  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts."  The  city  corporation  came  forward  to  show  its  apprecia- 
tion of  the  object  in  view,  and  granted  the  society  a  lease  of  ten  years 
without  pay,  of  rooms  in  the  New  York  Institute  on  Chambers  Street. 
Some  controversy  as  to  management  or  policy  led  to  a  split  in  the 
membership,  and  those  who  withdrew  founded  in  1825  the  New  York 
Drawing  Association.  "  for  art  study  and  social  intercourse."  Morse 
had  come  to  the  city  in  1815,  and  he  was  a  leader  in  this  separa- 
tion. The  success  of  the  new  society  led  to  the  founding  of  the  Na- 
tional Academy,  as  related,  in  1820.  At  first,  indeed  for  a  long  time, 
the  Academy  had  no  buildings  of  its  own.  When  Clinton  Hall  was 
put  up  on  the  corner  of  Beekman  and  Nassau  Streets  in  L830,  the  ex- 
hibitions of  the  society  were  held  here  for  nine  years.  Prom  1839  to 
1849  it  leased  quarters  in  the  Society  Library  Building  on  Broadway 
and  Leonard  Street.  It  was  not  till  1803  that  the  cornerstone  was 
laid  of  the  present  building  on  the  corner  of  Fourth  Avenue  and 
Twenty-third  Street.  While  at  other  exhibitions  a  permanent  collec- 
tion of  the  same  pictures  was  presented  to  sightseers,  the  Academy, 
in  order  to  stimulate  work  among  its  members,  made  it  a  rule  to  ex- 
hibit only  pictures  never  before  seen  by  t  he  public.  This  whetted  also 
the  curiosity  of  the  lay  population,  and  drew  it  in  crowds  to  its  rooms 
when  others  were  deserted.  The  "  American  Art  Union  "  was  another 
organization  greatly  promotive  of  an  appreciation  and  an  produc- 
tiveness. It  began  its  successful  career  in  1840.  Its  practice  was  to 
purchase  only  American  works  of  art.  which  were  exhibited  without 
charge  to  the  public  at  their  galleries,  No.  497  Broadway,  and  after 
exhibition  went  by  lot  to  its  members.  Among  the  earliest  paintings 
exhibited  at  the  Art  Union  were  Durand's  "  Passing  of  a  Summer 
Shower."  and  Leutze's  "  Landing  of  Columbus."  Besides  these  there 
were,  between  1844  and  1800.  at  least  four  or  live  other  galleries  in 
the  city,  not  including  t  hat  of  the  Crystal  Palace,  of  which  more  anon. 
Among  artists  themselves  there  weie  "  Sketch  Clubs,"  of  various  de- 
scriptions, and  descending  to  various  associations  or  clubs  of  a  later 
day.  Cooper  Institute  embraced  among  its  practical  curriculum  all 
branches  of  drawing,  also  modeling:  and  in  1859  there  was  a  class  in 

wood  engraving  established  for  women.  At  the  same  time  a  separate 

organization  rented  rooms  in  the  building  as  a  School  of  Design  for 
Women  including  drawing  and  painting,  as  well  as  wood  engraving. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


379 


Popular  music  had  already  become  a  very  much  Loved  pastime  with 
the  citizens  of  New  York.  Thai  fine  corps  of  military  gentlemen,  the 
Light  Guards,  who  horrified  Kossuth  with  their  Austrian  uniforms, 
deserve  the  credit  of  having  organized  the  first  brass  band  in  the  city, 
and  of  starting  the  Dodworths  upon  their  long  and  delightful  career. 
It  was  only  after  1850  1  hat  martial  music  assumed  t  iiis  melodious  and 
heart-stirring  as  well  as  ear-pleasing  form.  We  might  call  it  multi- 
melodious,as  compared  with  the  duet  of  fife  and  drum  which  contented 
our  patriotic  soldiers  through  the  Revolution  and  the  "  War  of  '12." 
After  what  New  York  has  had  since  1850  it  is  wellnigh  impossible  to 
imagine  how  a  fife  and  drum  could  put  a  soul  under  the  ribs  of  death, 
like  our  splendid  regimental  bands  can  do  it.  Architecture  had  not 
as  yet  many  specimens  to  boast  of.  The  Cathedral  on  Fifth  Avenue 
had  its  cornerstone  laid  in  L858,  and  for  many  years  only  a  few  feet 
of  the  walls  stood  waiting  prudently  for  funds  to  realize  the  splen- 


:  TO 


L    i  3 

;JlfV 


CRYSTAL  PALACE  IN  1853. 

did  structure  that  now  ornaments  the  city.  The  churches  at  37th 
Street,  and  29th  Street  were  good  to  look  upon,  and  if  the  steeple 
was  taken  off  before  1860  (perhaps  it  was)  the  church  on  Lafay- 
ette Place  near  the  Astor  Library  furnished  a  fine  reproduction 
of  the  Parthenon,  or  the  Madeleine  of  Paris.  The  Library  itself  gave 
a  satisfactory  idea  of  the  Florentine  style.  It  is  notorious,  however, 
that  none  of  the  United  States  Government  buildings  were  up  to  the 
mark.  Its  Postoffice  was  the  old  Nassau  Street  Church,  rising  amid 
a  straggling  collection  of  nondescript  buildings.  The  Custom  House 
was  taken  from  the  corner  of  Nassau  and  Wall  to  the  resuscitated 
Merchant's  Exchange,  a  heavy,  gloomy  structure,  of  no  grace  and  no 
sunshine.  The  former  Custom  House  became  the  Sub-Treasury  still 
in  the  same  spot,  and  at  that  time  the  best  of  the  government  build- 
ings in  this  city. 


380 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


The  climax  of  interest  in  art,  science,  and  industry,  as  felt  by  the 
people  of  New  York,  was  doubtless  expressed  in  the  World's  Fair 
held  in  1S.">:>.  England  had  gone  before  us  under  the  intelligent  guid- 
ance of  the  Prince  Consort,  in  1851,  and  the  Crystal  Palace  at  Syden- 
ham still  remains.  •  New  York  too  had  its  Crystal  Palace,  but  it  was 
consumed  by  llames  live  years  alter  its  construction.  What  had  been 
done  in  England  under  t  he  auspices  and  with  the  backing  of  the  treas- 
ures of  the  Government,  was  undertaken  here  by  an  association  of 
citizens  "  for  the  Exhibition  of  the  Industry  of  all  Nations."  It  con- 
stituted a  stock  company,  in  which  persons  from  all  over  the  nation 
shared,  and  to  which  the  Government  also  lent  substantial  aid  and 
encouragement.  New  York  was  naturally  chosen  for  the  place,  and 
1  he  ground  back  of  the  Reservoir,  or  t  he  entire  block  On  Sixt  h  Avenue 
between  10th  and  42d  Streets,  running  nearly  to  Fifth  Avenue, 
was  granted  by  the  city  mow  Bryant  Park).  Here  was  erected 
a  magnificent  structure  of  glass  and  iron,  somewhat  in  the  shape 
of  a  Greek  cross,  surmounted  at  its  intersection  by  a  splendid  dome. 
The  spring  of  the  arch  inside  the  dome  was  sixty-eight  feet  above  the 
floor.  Each  diameter  of  the  cross  was  three  hundred  and  sixty-live 
feet  long,  each  arm  of  the  cross  one  hundred  and  forty-nine  feet  broad 
on  the  ground  plan.  The  diameter  of  the  dome  was  one  hundred  feet, 
and  its  exterior  height  one  hundred  and  twenty-three.  The  exterior 
angles  were  closed  up  with  triangular  lean-to's,  giving  the  ground 
plan  an  octagonal  shape.  At  each  angle  of  tin*  four  facades  was  a 
small  octagonal  tower  eight  feet  in  diameter  and  seventy-live  feet 
high.  The  building  contained  on  the  ground  floor  1 1  1.000  square  feet 
of  space,  and  in  the  galleries  62,000  square  feet,  making  a  total  area 
of  about  four  acres.  But  even  this  vast  area  w  as  soon  seen  to  be  too 
small  to  accommodate  the  exhibitors  applying  for  space,  and  a  large 
additional  building  or  annex  was  constructed,  occupying  the  entire 
distance  from  the  main  building  to  the  Reservoir.  It  was  two  stories 
high  in  the  middle,  its  length  four  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  and  its 
breadth  on  the  ground  floor  seventy-live.  The  first  story  of  this  annex 
was  devoted  to  machinery  in  motion,  to  cabinets  of  mining  and  min- 
eralogy and  to  restaurant  purposes.  The  second  story  in  its  entire 
length  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  feet  and  with  a  width  of  twenty-one 
feet,  was  set  apart,  as  a  gallery  of  paintings  and  statuary. 

It  was  intended  to  have  the  building  ready  and  exhibits  placed 
in  time  to  open  in  May,  the  regulation  month  for  world's  fairs  ever 
since.  But  not  even  the  glorious  Fourth  could  be  utilized  for  tin1 
ceremonies.  These  fell  on  July  14,  1853.  Franklin  Pierce.  President 
of  the  United  States  at  that  time,  and  the  members  of  his  Cabinet,  as 
well  as  distinguished  foreigners,  graced  the  august  occasion.  Prayer 
was  read  by  Bishop  Wainwright .  and  the  vast  assembly  sang  a  choral 
writ  ten  for  t  he  occasion,  and  beginning  "  1 1  ere.  where  all  climes  t  heir 
offerings  send."  to  the  impressive  tune  of  Old  Hundred.    Alter  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


:;si 


proper  speeches  of  presentation  and  acceptance,  the  organ  pealed 
forth  Handel's  Hallelujah  Chorus  as  a  fit  conclusion  to  the  services. 
It  is  gratifying  to  learn,  for  the  purposes  of  this  chapter,  that  the  Art 
Exhibition  of  Pictures  and  Statuary,  drew  quite  as  much  attention 
as  any  other  part  of  the  great  fair.  There  were  so  many  German 
artists  represented  by  canvases,  that  it  created  some  surprise.  Cer- 
tainly they  must  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  send  their  works  to 
be  viewed  by  a  nation  supposed  to  be  rather  crude  and  uncultured  in 
point  of  art.  In  the  department  of  Sculpture  there  was  a  group  of 
col(iss;i]  figures,  by  no  less  an  artist  than  Thorwaldsen,  representing 
Christ  and  his  apostles.  It  attracted  a  great  crowd  of  admirers  day 
after  day.  There  were  also  a  copy  of  the  famous  "  Amazon  "  in 
bronze,  at  Berlin,  and  a 
fine  equestrian  statue 
of  Washington.  The 
veiled  statues  created 
a  good  deal  of  astonish- 
ment at  the  skill  in 
sculpture  displayed.  In- 
deed, while  paintings 
had  now  been  exhibited 
in  abundance  in  New 
York  for  several  years, 
this  exhibition  of  the 
finest  productions  of 
the  sculptor's  art  was 
something  that  novelty, 
aside  from  intrinsic 
merit,  made  all  the  more 
piquant.  In  the  Italian 
department  was  seen  a 
life-size  statue  of  Colum- 
bus, in  purest  marble, 
from  the  hand  of  Del 
Medico.  France  contrib- 
uted as  works  of  art  and 
industry  combined,  the  famous  Gobelin  carpets  excelling  the  Persian 
fabrics  in  softness  and  smoothness  of  texture,  and  in  strength,  while 
the  colors  and  designs  were  unsurpassed.  The  exhibition  was  kept 
open  the  usual  number  of  months,  closing  in  the  autumn.  But  it  was 
decided  to  preserve  the  beautiful  and  striking  edifice  which  had  con- 
tained it,  and  to  open  a  permanent  exhibition  in  it.  On  May  14,  1854, 
the  exercises  rededicating  the  Crystal  Palace  to  this  more  permanent 
use,  were  held,  made  memorable  by  a  brilliant  speech  by  Elihu  Bur- 
ritt,  who  said  among  other  things:  "  Worthy  of  the  grandest  circum- 
stances which  could  be  thrown  around  a  human  assembly,  worthy  of 


382 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


this  occasion  and  a  hundred  like  this,  is  that  beautiful  idea — the 
Coronation  of  Labor  .  .  .  the  labor  of  mankind  as  one  undivided 
brotherhood, — Labor,  as  the  oldest,  the  noblest  prerogative  of  duty 
and  humanity.''  Only  a  few  years  was  this  Palace  of  Industry  per- 
mitted to  remain  an  ornament  and  an  attraction  to  the  city.  For  on 
October  5,  1858,  it  caught  lire  while  the  American  Institute  Fair  was 
in  progress,  and  in  half  an  hour  the  structure  of  iron  and  glass  was 
reduced  to  a  molten  mass  of  ruins.  Asa  final  "word  on  the  subject  of 
art,  and  the  devotion  to  it  that  began  to  mark  New  York  as  a  com- 
munity, it  must  be  mentioned  thai  the  colossal  equestrian  statue  of 
Washington  in  Union  Square,  was  placed  there  on  July  4,  I8."><i.  with 
appropriate  exercises.  The  orator  of  the  day  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  George 
W.  Bethune,  one  of  the  foremost  speakers  of  the  day,  and  pastor  of  a 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  in  Brooklyn.  As  early  as  1N47  a  monu- 
ment was  proposed  to  Washington  at  Fourth  Avenue  and  68th 
Street,  where  the  Normal  College  is  now,  somewhat  in  the  style  of  a 
memorial  fane,  surmounted  by  a  statue;  the  project  got  as  far  as  the 
laying  of  a  cornerstone  on  October  19,  but  the  monument  never  ma- 
terialized. On  November  25  (Evacuation  Day)  1857.  the  monument 
to  General  Worth  opposite  .Madison  Square  was  unveiled,  and  his 
remains  conveyed  from  the  City  Hall  (whither  they  had  been  brought 
from  their  temporary  resting  place  in  Greenwood  Cemetery  I  and  de- 
posited in  this  place  with  military  honors. 

The  citizens  of  New  York  certainly  did  not  sutler  from  the  lack  of 
opportunities  for  enjoying  the  histrionic  art.  In  1837  there  were  al- 
ready eight  theaters.  The  familiar  name  of  Wallack  s  Theater  ap- 
pears in  the  chronicles  of  this  decade  (1852)  and  it  is  noted  with  suns- 
faction  that  here,  in  1858,  the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  dramatized,  as 
well  as  other  plays  of  a  high  literary  character,  won  much  favor  from 
the  cultured  New  York  citizens.  The  Old  Park  Theater  had  had  its 
final  fire:  out  of  that  of  1820  it  had  arisen  like  the  Plnenix  by  the 
ready  assistance  of  John  Jacob  Astor.  In  1848  the  firefiend  claimed 
it  once  more  as  a  victim,  without  the  Phoenix  incident,  as  the  move- 
ment of  churches  as  well  as  i  heaters  was  uptown,  and  it  was  not 
deemed  advisable  to  open  again  in  Park  Bow.  The  year  and  date 
were  both  noticeable:  December  L6  was  the  anniversary  of  the  Great 
Fire  of]  835  (the  superst  it  ions  will  be  glad  to  observe  this  was  tJiirhcn 
years  later);  and  1848  was  exact  ly  half  a  century  since  the  opening  of 
the  "  Old  Park  "  in  1798.  "  Brougham's  Lyceum."  sometimes  called 
the  Broadway  Theater  on  Broadway  and  Proome  Street,  opened  in 
1850;  and  Wallack's  in  1852.  soon  made  up  for  the  loss  of  the  "  Park." 
The  Academy  of  .Music  was  built  on  the  corner  of  Fourteenth  Street 
and  Irving  Place  in  1854,  designed,  as  its  name  indicates,  for  opera 
alone,  but  prose  and  speech  have  as  often  resounded  from  its  boards. 
Fire  claimed  the  original  building  as  it  did  the  Park  twice  and  the 
Bowery  a  half  dozen  times,  and  in  18(18  the  present  building  was 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


;;s:; 


erected.  A  theater  was  built  for  Laura  Keene,  on  Broadway  near 
Houston,  in  1850.  Franconi,  the  King  of  the  Circus.  wh"«e  latest 
descendant  on  that  throne  died  the  other  day  iii  Paris,  opened  a  "  Hip- 
podrome" during  the  World's  Fair,  on  .Madison  Square.  Barnum's 
similar  use  of  the  spot  near  by,  where  Madison  Square  Garden  is  now, 
long  gave  that  name  to  the  block  or  building  after  it  ceased  to  be  the 
depot  of  the  Harlem  Railroad.  W  hen  the  Fair  ended  Franconi  went 
back  to  his  more  congenial  Paris.  Barnum,  by  the  way,  was  at  this 
time  upon  the  site  of  the  St.  Paul  Building,  corner  of  Ann  Street  and 
Broadway,  with  a  museum  and  a  small  theater  attached. 

Whether  these  theaters  and  places  of  amusement  all  contributed 
their  share  toward  the  higher  life  of  New  York,  promoting  a  love  of 
pure  art  and  thus  keeping  the  citizens  above  the  level  of  mere  money- 
getters,  may  be  doubted.  But  nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that 
an  uplift  to  the  finer  sensibili- 
ties and  a  joy  and  pride  in  hu- 
man art  were  produced  by  the 
visit  of  Jenny  Lind  to  tins  city 
in  the  year  1850.  P.  T.  Barnum, 
who  had  already  begun  his 
career  as  a  showman,  under- 
took to  introduce  the  "Swedish 
Nightingale  "  to  the  American 
public.  He  made  her  the  most 
munificent  offer  through  an 
agent  in  Europe  before  he  had 
ever  seen  or  heard  her,  but 
there  was  little  risk  in  the  high- 
est terms.  There  are  few  sing- 
ers who  have  succeeded  in  ex- 
citing such  enthusiasm  of  a 
personal  nature  as  Jenny  Lind; 
doubtless  due  to  the  charm  of 
her  personal  qualities,  the  sweetness  of  her  disposition,  her  bound- 
less generosity  and  charity,  and  her  irresistible  modesty,  which 
arrogated  nothing  but  kept  her  in  a  perpetual  surprise  that  peo- 
ple should  admire  her  performances  so  greatly.  She  arrived  per 
steamer  Atlantic,  on  September  1,  1850.  It  was  as  if  a  queen 
had  come.  Thousands  of  persons  filled  wharves  and  shipping  and 
streets  in  the  vicinity.  Sloops  and  steamers  out  on  the  river  were 
crowded  to  the  danger  line.  A  bower  of  evergreens  w7as  erected  upon 
the  wharf  where  she  wras  to  land,  and  she  was  made  to  pass  under  two 
triumphal  arches,  upon  one  of  Avhich  amid  flowers  and  bunting  was 
inscribed  the  legend  "  Welcome  Jenny  Lind,"  while  the  other  bore  one 
reading  "  Welcome  to  America."  She  was  driven  to  the  Irving  House, 
one  of  the  famous  hostelries  of  the  day.  on  the  corner  of  Chambers 


PARK  THEATRE. 


384 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Street  and  Broadway.  That  night  she  was  serenaded  at  the  Hotel 
by  a  band  of  two  hundred  musicians,  who  were  escorted  to  the  hotel 
by  three  hundred  firemen  in  uniform;  ii  was  thought  that  twenty 
thousand  people  were  in  the  throngs  tilling  the  streets  and  the  City 
Hall  Park  opposite.  Visitors  <»f  high  social  and  official  standing 
called  upon  her  even  before  her  tirst  appearance  upon  the  stage,  and 
soon  everything  in  the  city  became  "  Jenny  Lind  " — enterprising  shop 
keepers  taking  advantage  of  the  popular  enthusiasm  and  dabbing 
gloves,  bonnets,  riding  hats,  shawls,  pianos,  chairs,  sofas,  with  her 
magic  name.    It  was  at  Castle  Garden  that  her  concerts  were  to  be 


given.  In  IN.")  this  place  of  eniertainmenl  became  an  emigrant  de- 
pot, and  the  associations  of  most  of  us  connect  it  with  that  rather  un- 
promising employment.  It  is  somewhat  better  now  that  it  lias  been 
resolved  into  an  Aquarium.    Bu1  the  old  Castle  Clinton  meant  for 

defense  in  L812  had  been  ceded  to  i  ho  city  in  \S'2'2.  and  ever  since  that 
date  had  served  as  a  place  for  public  gatherings,  receptions  to  distin- 
guished guests,  balls,  plays,  and  concerts.  Here  Kossnth  was  received 
the  next  year  (1851)  and  the  circular  space  rang  with  his  passionate 
appeals.  Its  name  had  been  (  hanged  to  ( 'ast  le  <  Jarden.  and  only  asso- 
ciations <>f  pleasure  or  brilliancy  were  connected  with  the  name  to 

an  earlier  generation,  it  had  a  seating  capacity  of  five  thousand,  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


385 


every  seat  was  disposed  of  long  before  Jenny  Lind's  first  night,  which 
was  set  for  Wednesday,  September  11.  On  (lie  previous  Saturday 
and  Monday,  the  tickets  were  sold  at  auction,  and  the  first  ticket 
brought  $225.  The  arrangements  for  handling  the  immense  throngs 
expected  wTere  perfect,  so  that  there  was  no  disturbance  or  difficulty 
of  any  kind.  Before  she  had  sung  a  note,  as  she  came  upon  the  stage, 
the  reception  accorded  her  was  beyond  description.  The  entire  au- 
dience rose  to  their  feet,  the  men  giving  her  three  cheers  and  the 
women  waving  their  handkerchiefs.  The  Swedish  Nightingale  was 
more  than  usually  impressed  and  agitated  :'she  had  never  faced  so 
vast  an  audience.  But  the  orchestra  quieted  her  nerves  and  after  a 
few  notes  she  was  quite  herself.  Her  first  piece  was  a  selection  from 
"  Casta  Diva."  Although  expectation  had  been  raised  to  an  almost 
inordinate  pitch  the  beautiful  singing  came  quite  up  to  it  and  went 
beyond  it,  and  the  people  were  so  wild  wTith  delight  that  they  actually 
could  not  wait  for  her  to  finish  the  first  number  on  the  program,  but 
burst  into  applause  and  cries  of  enthusiasm.  It  was  Jenny  Lind's 
practice  to  devote  the  proceeds  of  her  first  night  to  charitable  objects, 
and  when  Barnuni,  who  was  called  for  at  the  close  of  the  concert,  and 
reluctantly  appeared,  perhaps  because  he  did  not  know  what  else  to 
say,  announced  this  fact,  the  enthusiasm  passed  beyond  all  bounds, 
and  people  seemed  to  be  absolutely  frantic.  Her  benefactions  to  so- 
cieties and  individuals  during  her  tour  of  America  amounted  to  no 
less  than  $50,000.  A  scientific  description  of  Jenny  Lind's  voice  calls 
it  "  a  soprano,  embracing  a  register  of  two  and  a  half  octaves."  It 
was  clear  and  powerful,  the  strong  and  passionate  passages  ringing 
full  and  thrilling  through  the  largest  auditory,  while  the  soft  and  sub- 
dued notes  could  be  heard  at  the  greatest  distance.  "  No  difficult!  s 
appalled  her;  a  perfect  musician,  she  suffered  herself  to  revel  in  all 
the  roulades  of  which  the  time  and  occasion  admitted."  The  effect 
upon  the  hearer  of  the  combination  of  all  these  musical  and  vocal 
powers,  as  well  as  of  her  manner  and  feeling  in  the  rendition,  was 
something  to  which  no  language  can  do  justice.  To  be  understood  it 
had  to  be  experienced. 

Closely  allied  to  art,  and  a  part  and  parcel  of  that  feeling  for  a 
higher  life  which  possessed  New  Yorkers,  while  calculated  to  promote 
and  perpetuate  that  feeling  in  succeeding  generations,  was  the  public 
spirit  which  set  apart  a  great  area  of  city  property,  of  incalculable 
value  in  money  now  if  counted  as  real  estate,  for  the  creation  of  Cen- 
tral Park.  It  has  been  stated  that  some  men  proposed  the  laying  out 
of  a  park  around  the  fine  bit  of  natural  scenery  afforded  by  the  Collect 
Pond,  in  1808.  But  it  was  deemed  impracticable,  as  too  far  out  of 
town.  In  1856  the  project  of  a  park  was  earnestly  advocated,  and 
then  the  going  out  of  town  involved  a  far  greater  distance  from  the 
City  Hall.  Gouverneur  Morris,  with  his  city  on  paper  laid  out  to 
155th  Street,  proposed  reserving  a  space  of  three  hundred  acres  be- 


:;sg 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tween  -3d  and  34th  Streets  and  Third  and  Eighth  Avenues.  But  noth- 
ing came  of  this  schenfe  except  that  Madison  Square  happens 
to  form  oue  small  corner  of  that  larger  space,  containing  six 
acres  of  ground  instead  of  three  hundred.  This  park  would  have 
been  transversely  laid  across  the  city's  progress  upward.  The 
space  selected  finally  fell  more  into  line  with  its  length.  Jones's 
Wood,  redolent  of  beer,  was  next  thought  of,  and  a  bill  actually 
passed  for  its  appropriation  in  1851.  This  was  done  as  the  result  of  a 
message  urging  the  project  sent  by  Mayor  Kingsland  to  the  Common 
Council.  Commissioners  were  appointed  to  consider  the  proposed 
site,  and  also  to  report  upon  others  that  might  be  desirable.  Jones's 
Wood  was  finally  condemned  as  too  much  to  one  side  of  the  city,  and 
lacking  in  diversity  of  surface,  and  the  bill  regarding  it  was  repealed. 
The  Commissioners  thereupon  selected  a  tract  of  land  extendi ug  from 
59th  Street  to  100th  Street,  and  between  Fifth  and  Eightn  Ave- 
nues. This  made  a  width  of  about  half  a  mile  and  a  length  of 
over  two  miles.  Their  report  was  adopted  by  the  Corporation, 
and  in  July,  1853,  the  Legislature  passed  an  act  authorizing  the 
purchase  of  the  land.  There  was  a  Slate  Arsenal  at  63d  Street 
and  Fifth  Avenue,  which  still  remains  ;  this  was  bought  for 
$275,000.  The  value  of  the  remainder  was  ascertained  by  a  commis- 
sion of  appraisers,  and  placed  at  85,398,005.  It  required  a  great  de- 
gree of  devotion  to  the  higher  necessities  of  her  citizens,  and  to  the 
loftier  instincts  of  human  nature,  to  bring  the  people  of  New  York  to 
consent  to  the  expenditure  of  so  vast  an  amount  of  money  for  a  mere 
pleasure  ground.  Xo  wonder  that  bitter  opposition  met  the  warm 
advocacy  of  the  measure,  and  the  Common  Council  was  brought  at 
last  to  adopt  a  petition  begging  the  Legislature  to  pass  a  bill  reducing 
the  amount  of  land  to  be  set  aside  for  the  park.  But  the  Mayor  vetoed 
the  petition,  and  in  1859  the  territory  for  use  of  the  park  w  as  extended 
so  as  to  embrace  also  the  ground  from  100th  Street  to  110th 
Street,  making  a  length  of  two  and  a  half  miles  complete.  The 
first  Park  Board  in  1856  consisted  of  the  Mayor  and  the  Com- 
missioner of  Streets,  who  invited  to  the  membership  of  it  three 
distinguished  residents  of  the  city.  Washington  Irving,  (ieorge 
Bancroft,  and  William  Cnllen  Bryant.  They  called  for  designs, 
of  which  several  were  submitted;  the  one  selected  by  the  board 
being  that  of  Lieutenant  mow  General)  Egbert  L.  Viele.  The  work 
before  him  was  not  pleasant  or  safe.  Five  thousand  squatters  occu- 
pied the  locks  and  hills  in  this  section  of  the  city,  they  were  mostly 
of  foreign  birth,  and  their  manner  of  living  made  the  entire  region  a 
plague  spot.  They  objected  to  being  removed,  and  were  by  no  means 
scrupulous  in  their  modes  of  resistance.  As  General  Viele  himself 
says:  "Such  was  the  danger  of  the  situation  that  the  designer  of  the 
park  had  to  go  armed  while  making  his  studies. and  in  addition  to  this, 
to  carry  an  ample  supply  of  deodorizers.''    Tn  1S58  a  plan  for  laying 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


1387 


out  the  park,  submitted  by  Messrs.  Oluistead  and  Yaux,  landscape 
gardeners,  was  adopted, and  the  park  became  what  it  is  now  in  general 
features,  somewhat  artistically,  perhaps  artificially,  arranged  in  the 
southern  portions,  belowr  the  main  lake;  but  on  the  east  side  of  the 
lake,  and  north  of  it,  left  studiously  and  comparatively  wild,  the 
paths,  almost  labyrinthine,  allowing  the  most  perfect  enjoyment  of 
nature  in  her  own  moods.  Here  is  the  Ramble,  containing  the  strik- 
ing feature  of  a  cave,  dark  and  weird,  and  perhaps  a  trifle  too  malo- 
dorous. Before  the  end  of  the  decade  work  was  well  under  way.  In- 
deed even  in  1857  relief  was  furnished  to  peqple  out  of  employment 
as  a  result  of  the  panic,  by  giving  them  a  chance  to  work  in  the  park. 
In  this  enterprise,  so  indicative  of  an  unselfish  and  earnest  regard  for 
the  higher  interests  of  the  population,  New  York  led  all  the  other 
cities  of  the  Union.  Her  commercial  instincts  could  not  have  been 
very  depressing  to  the  better  side  of  human  nature,  if  she  were  willing 
to  expend  millions  of  money  upon  an  investment  that  gave  no  mate- 
rial returns,  but  wras  merely  intended  to  be  a  "  thing  of  beauty  and  a 
joy  for  ever."  Philadelphia  and  other  cities 
have  followed  the  noble  example.  But  even  yet 
London  is  far  behind  New  York;  her  largest 
park  covers  but  403  acres  while  Central  Park 
contains  nearly  863.  Even  the  Bois  de  Boulogne 
of  Paris  must  yield  in  size  to  our  park.  Besides 
this  great  garden  in  the  upper  part  of  the  town, 
before  1860  there  were  reserved  for  air  and  rec- 
reation also  the  park  at  the  Battery,  Washing- 
ington,  Union,  Madison,  and  Tompkins  Squares, 


and  many  others;  wrhile  the  space  devoted  to 
parks  to-day  is  measured  by  more  than  five  thou- 


sand acres. 

As  an  evidence  of  no  mean  force  of  the  state  of  things  for  wrhich  we 
are  contending  in  this  chapter — that  there  was  prevailing  among  our 
citizens  a  regard  for  higher  things  than  mere  dollars  in  sight  or  in 
prospect,- — there  must  not  be  forgotten  the  celebrated  Grinnell  Arctic 
expeditions.  There  seemed  eminent  poetic  fitness  in  the  fact  that  the 
pursuit  of  Arctic  exploration  should  meet  with  a  hearty  sympathy 
and  support  from  men  in  New  York.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
discovery  of  her  site  was  the  result  of  an  arctic  expedition.  The  Half- 
moon  was  sent  out  by  the  Dutch  East  India  Companyto  find  the  north- 
east or  the  northwest  passage  to  the  Indies,  by  way  of  the  Arctic- 
Ocean.  When  Hudson  sailed  up  the  river  of  his  name,  he  was  still 
under  the  impression  that  he  might  be  tracing  a  Magellan's  Strait  in 
the  Northern  hemisphere  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  The  oc- 
casion for  New  York  to  manifest  how  she  felt  upon  the  subject,  which 
had 'now  become  a  scientific  rather  than  a  commercial  quest,  came 
when  all  the  world  was  filled  with  anxiety  and  uncertainty  as  to  the 


388 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


fate  of  the  explorer  Sir  Jolm  Franklin,  who  had  left  England  in  May 
1845,  and  after  having  been  spoken  by  some  whaling  vessels  in  Baf- 
fin's Bay  in  J  nly  or  August  of  that  same  year,  had  never  been  heard  of 
or  seen  again.  The  English  Government  had  sent  out  one  searching 
expedition  after  another,  without  finding  a  trace  of  the  unfortunate 
party.  Lady  Franklin,  while  her  own  country  was  so  responsive  to 
her  appeals,  called  also  on  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  "  as  a  kin- 
dred people,  to  join  heart  and  hand  in  the  enterprise  of  snatching  the 
lost  navigators  from  a  dreary  grave.''  The  President  laid  the  case 
before  Congress,  but  the  legislative  machinery  moved  slowly  and  pre- 
cious time  for  beginning  operations  was  passing  away  when, — as  a 
member  of  the  expedition,  Dr.  Kent  Kane,  remarks  in  his  account  of 
it, — •"  a  noble-spirited  merchant  of  New  York  of  whom  as  an  Ameri- 
can and  a  man  I  can  hardly  trust  myself  to  speak,  fitted  out  two  of  his 
own  vessels,  and  proffered  them  gratuitously  to  the  Government." 
This  hastened  the  action  of  Congress  who  now  authorized  the  Presi- 
dent to  detail  the  requisite  number  of  navy  officers  and  seamen  to  en- 
gage in  the  enterprise.  The  New  York  merchant  referred  to  was  Mr. 
Henry  Grinnell.  a  member  of  the  firm  who  in  1817  established  the 
"  Swallow  Tail  Line  "  of  packet  ships  to  Liverpool.  The  two  vessels 
he  placed  a1  I  he  disposal  of  the  Government  were  the  brigs  Advance 
and  Rescue,  of  small  burden,  the  former  a  little  larger  than  the  other, 
but  belter  adapted  from  their  size  to  the  peculiar  exigencies  of  Arctic 
navigation  than  larger  ships  would  have  been.  The  Advance  had 
been  originally  intended  for  the  carrying  of  machinery,  and  Iter  lim- 
bers for  that  reason  were  of  a  peculiarly  large  and  solid  kind,  the 
fastenings  that  held  them  together  applied  with  especial  care  and 
placed  at  less  infrequent  intervals  than  ordinary.  She  was  thus  cal- 
culated to  resist  sudden  concussions  wThile  sailing  amid  ice-floes,  or 
the  continued  pressure  when  caught  between  great  fields  of  ice.  .Mr. 
Grinnell  not  only  furnished  the  ships,  but  largely  added  to  the  sup- 
plies requisite,  and  Dr.  Kane  has  left  on  record  a  gratifying  account 
of  the  general  interest  of  the  people  of  New  York  in  this  work  of  com- 
bined benevolence  and  science.  "  I  could  not  kelp  being  struck  with 
the  universal  sympathy  displayed  toward  our  expedition.  From  the 
ladies  who  busied  themselves  sealing  up  air-tigh1  packages  of  fruit 
cakes,  to  the  managers  of  the  Astor  House,  who  insisted  that  their 
hotel  should  be  the  free  headquarters  of  our  party,  it  was  one  con- 
tinued round  of  proffered  services.  I  should  have  a  long  list  of  citi- 
zens to  thank  if  I  were  allowed  to  name  them  on  these  pages." 

On  May  22,  1850,  at  1  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Advance  and 
Rescue  started  on  their  perilous  journey.  There  were  no  salutes  of 
eannon  as  the  little  squadron  left  the  navy  yard,  but  the  people 
showed  their  interest  as  they  passed  the  Battery,  where  cheers  and 
huzzas  burst  from  an  immense  multitude  assembled  there.  Ferry- 
boats and  steamers  went  out  of  their  way  to  salute  them  as  the  tug 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


389 


drew  them  out  of  the  Bay  to  sea.  Engaging  a  pilot  boat,  Mr.  Grinnell 
and  his  sons  accompanied  the  brigs  far  out  to  sea  until  the  25th,  when 
they  signaled  their  farewell  and  returned  home.  The  expedition 
proved,  of  course,  as  fruitless  as  regards  its  main  object — the  finding 
of  Franklin — as  all  those  that  had  gone  before  it  or  that  came  after. 
They  drifted  helplessly  in  a  great  ice-field,  several  miles  long  and 
broad,  to  75  degrees  north  latitude,  and  remained  lixed  in  that 
position  for  nine  months.  They  discovered  some  new  coasts, 
when  they  were  free  again,  to  which  was  given  the  name  of 
GrinnelPs  Land.  On  September  30,  1851, ,  the  two  ships  arrived 
safely  at  New  York,  having  stood  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  un- 
usual journey  bravely,  and  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man. 
Dr.  Kent  Kane,  the  scientific  chief  of  the  expedition,  was  not 
without  hope  of  success  in  another  trial,  and  in  December,  1852, 
he  was  commissioned  by  the  Government  to  institute  a  second 
search.  Mr.  Grinnell  again  placed  the  Advance  at  his  disposal,  and 
Mr.  George  Peabody,  the  philanthropist,  provided  all  the  necessary 
equipments.  The  New  York  Geographical  Society,  and  other  associa- 
tions and  individuals,  gave  aid  by  contributions  in  money  or  costly 
scientific  apparatus,  and  on  May  30,  1853,  the  Advance,  now  alone  in 
her  quest,  left  her  moorings  and  started  out  to  sea.  A  fleet  of  steamers 
accompanied  her  as  far  as  The  Narrows,  where  salutes  boomed  from 
cannons  and  shrieked  from  whistles  as  she  passed  into  the  Lower  Bay. 
The  expedition  met  with  even  greater  hardships  than  before.  The  Ad- 
vance had  to  be  abandoned  in  the  ice.  In  May,  1855,  the  party  started 
for  home,  traveling  1,300  miles  over  snow  and  ice  before  they  reached 
the  Northernmost  settlement  in  Greenland.  Two  men  died  on  the 
way.  The  United  States  Government  had  dispatched  two  vessels  to 
the  relief  of  Dr.  Kane,  and  these  they  met  on  the  coast  of  Greenland. 
Thus  in  October,  1855,  after  an  absence  of  more  than  two  years,  they 
arrived  in  New  York.  Sir  John  Franklin  had  not  been  found,  nor  any 
trace  of  him;  but  the  liberality  and  intelligent  appreciation  of  the 
scientific  value  of  arctic  exploration  on  the  part  of  a  New  York  mer- 
chant were  well  rewarded.  The  two  expeditions  had  added  several 
items  of  importance  to  the  information  of  the  world  regarding  those 
mysterious  and  impenetrable  regions  of  perpetual  ice  and  snow.  In 
1800  Lady  Franklin  came  in  person  to  New  York  to  thank  its  citizens 
for  the  generous  aid  and  sympathy  displayed  in  her  behalf.  She  was 
received  as  the  city's  guest,  and  many  attentions  were  paid  to  her. 

The  multitude  of  benevolent  societies  that  have  been  established  in 
New  York  in  the  course  of  her  history,  is  another  vivid  and  convincing 
proof  of  the  higher  life  realized  among  her  citizens.  Many  of  these 
were  in  operation  during  the  ante-bellum  period  we  are  now  discuss- 
ing. The  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor  was 
organized  in  1843,  and  incorporated  in  1848;  an  earlier  society  of 
somewhat  the  same  nature  was  that  for  the  Prevention  of  Pauperism, 


390 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


established  in  L818.  The  New  York  Juvenile  Asylum  was  incorpo- 
rated in  L851.  In  1850  serious  efforts  were  instituted  by  the  New  York 
Ladies'  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
to  reclaim  the  outcasts  and  alleviate  the  misery  of  the  Five  Points, 
and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  history  of  the  Five  Points'  Mission. 
Its  operations  began  in  a  little  twenty  by  forty  room  on  the  corner  of 
Little  Water  and  Cross  Streets,  where  a  Sunday-school  was  organ- 
ized, consisting  of  about  seventy  pupils  the  first  day;  but  a  day  school 
was  soon  found  to  be  a  necessary  addition.  Funds  coming  in  to  aid 
so  laudable  a  movement,  an  old  brewery  standing  upon  a  triangle 
formed  by  one  of  the  intersections  of  the  numerous  streets  con- 
verging here,  was  purchased  and  fitted  up  as  a  Mission  House, 
and   here  the  Thanksgiving  Dinners  that  have  become  such  a 


OKINN ELL  EXPEDITION   IN  THE  ARCTIC  REGIONS. 


notable  feature,  were  annually  given.  The  "  Five  Points  House 
of  Industry"  was  an  institution  started  by  the  Rev.  .Mr.  Pease, 
the  first  missionary  employed  by  these  ladies.  lie  hired  two 
houses  in  the  locality,  establishing  himself  with  his  family  in 
one  of  them;  in  the  other  he  placed  sewing  machines,  giving 
employment  to  the  women  of  the  neighborhood,  making  shirts, 
while  he  provided  a  school  for  the  children.  His  idea  was  self-help 
rather  than  charity,  and  it  worked  well.  Soon  eight  houses  were  in 
use  for  the  enterprise.  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  now  took 
it  under  their  charge,  and  regular  incorporation  w  as  effected  in  1S.">4. 
In  1853  the  Children's  Aid  Society  began  its  useful  existence  under 
the  fostering  care  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Luring  Brace;  its  object,  the  res- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


391 


cue  and  education  and  general  improvement  in  condition  of  the  home- 
less and  friendless  children  roaming  the  streets  of  the  city.  As  a 
branch  of  its  work  it  interested  itself  in  the  newsboys,  and  in  March, 
1854,  established  the  "  Newsboys'  Lodging  House."  The  Bible  So- 
ciety had  been  established  in  1816,  and  was  occupying  its  large  edifice 
on  the  triangular  block  formed  by  Astor  Place,  Third  and  Fom-ih 
Avenues  and  9th  Street.  The  cornerstone  of  St.  Luke's  Hospital  on 
Fifth  Avenue  was  laid  in  1854;  and  the  Demilt  Dispensary,  on  Second 
Avenue,  corner  of  23d  Street,  named  after  two  maiden  sisters  who  had 
left  a  large  sum  of  money  for  the  purpose,  was  established  in  1851. 

We  have  noticed  in  its  proper  place  the  il  Great  Awakening  "  of 
1740,  under  the  influence  of  the  preaching  of  Whitefleld.  The  present 
century  witnessed  a  similar  religions  revival,  and  it  fell  in  the  decade 
before  the  war.  It  has  been  sometimes  supposed  that  it  was  the  re- 
sult of  the  panic  of  1857,  as  it  occurred  in  that  same  year,  and  the  con- 
clusion has  been  drawn  therefrom  that  commercial  convulsions,  with 
their  consequent  distress,  are  favorable  to  the  awakening  of  men  to 
the  less  material  needs  of  their  souls.  Whether  post  hoc  or  propter  hue, 
the  two  events  were  certainly  synchronous.  In  Burton's  Theater  on 
Chambers  Street,  between  Broadway  and  Center,  a  noonday  prayer- 
meeting  was  organized  in  an  ordinarily  large  room.  It  soon  became 
too  small,  and  the  large  auditorium  was  thrown  open.  The  crowds 
filled  that  too.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Fulton  Street  prayer- 
meetings  were  begun  in  the  lecture-room  of  the  Old  Dutch  Church  on 
Fulton  Street.  They  have  been  kept  up  ever  since,  although  the 
church  has  been  demolished,  the  Collegiate  Church  officers  having  pro- 
vided a  chapel  in  the  office-building  which  they  erected  on  the  site  of 
the  church.  As  a  result  of  the  revival,  which  lasted  through  the  win- 
ter until  the  spring  of  1858,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  week-day 
evening  or  "  prayer-meetings,"  customary  in  the  churches  of  many 
denominations,  at  which  laymen  make  addresses  and  offer  prayers 
as  well  as  the  minister,  were  then  initiated.  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  statistics  of  "  Conversions  "  during  the  awakening  of  1857  to  1858, 
such  a  permanent  and  prolonged  consequence  speaks  better  for  it 
than  any  figures.  But  after  forty  years  the  practice  is  falling  off 
again.  In  many  localities  the  prayer-meeting  is  left  only  to  the  wo- 
men, and  a  few  churches  in  the  city  and  country  have  accepted  the 
situation  frankly,  and  abandoned  the  practice  altogether. 


CHAPTKK  XTV 


THE  CRISIS  OF  WAR. 

HE  first  note  of  war  was  raised  on  December  20,  I860,  when 
the  people  of  South  Carolina,  by  their  representatives  in 
convention  assembled,  in  the  city  of  Charleston,  announced 
in  the  hearing  of  all  the  world,  and  in  defiance  of  the  Amer- 
ican nation,  that  "  the  union  before  existing  between  South  Carolina 
and  other  States  under  the  name  of  the  United  States,  was  dissolved." 
This  note  Avas  taken  up  rapidly  by  State  after  State  in  the  Southern 
tier — Mississippi,  Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  Texas — all 
before  February  1, 1861,  thus  before  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  formally  consummated  by  the  last  procedure  customary  in  the 
case — the  official  count  of  the  electoral  vote  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. On  February  4,  1861,  delegates  from  six  of  the  seceding 
states  met  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  and  constituted  themselves  a 
new  union  under  the  name  of  "  The  Confederate  States  of  America." 
Thus  secession  had  at  last  come.  The  threats  of  it  had  often  been 
heard  in  the  Republic.  The  Hartford  Convention  of  New  England 
States,  voting  no  supplies  for  the  war  of  1812,  except  for  their  own 
defense,  had  come  perilously  near  it.  And,  strangely  enough,  seces- 
sion from  the  Union  so  recently  formed  was  in  the  minds  of  men  as 
early  as  the  time  of  the  Hamilton-Burr  duel.  Gouverneur  Morris  was 
tainted  with  it.  and  this  is  what  made  Burr  seem  a  "  dangerous  per- 
son" in  Hamilton's  eyes.  Senator  Lodge,  himself  a  new  Englander, 
says  of  Burr:  "  He  sought  the  governorship  of  New  York,  behind 
which  was  the  possibility  of  a  northern  confederacy  and  presidency, 
a  phantom  evoked  by  the  murmurs  of  secession  now  heard  among  New 
England  leaders."  And  ^\lr.  Lodge  advances  the  theory  that  Hamil- 
ton accepted  Burr's  challenge  only  for  the  reason  that  such  a  stale  of 
things  existed.  Hamilton  suspected  or  foresaw  that  Burr  was  en- 
tirely capable  of  disrupting  the  Union  for  the  sake  of  personal  ambi- 
tion. He  was  certain  that  Burr  would  eagerly  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  secession,  or  was  capable  of  fomenting  one  in  order  to  lend 
it;  and  Ave  now  know  that  he  did  something  very  much  like  this  in  a 
southwesterly  direction  a  few  years  later.  Hamilton  himself  would 
rather  have  shed  his  last  drop  of  life-blood  than  do  such  a  thing. 
Hence  he  risked  the  duel.  His  courage  had  been  put  to  the  proof  so 
often  that  it  was  entirely  unquestioned,  and  the  declining  of  a  chal- 
lenge could  not  have  impeached  it.   But  he  thought  that  under  the  cir- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


393 


cunistances  there  lay  upon  him  "  a  peculiar  necessity  not  to  decline 
the  call."  As  he  put  it  himself  significantly:  "  The  ability  to  be  in 
future  useful,  whether  in  resisting  mischief  or  effecting  good,  in  those 
crises  of  our  public  affairs  which  seem  likely  to  happen,  would  prob- 
ably be  inseparable  from  a  conformity  with  public  prejudice  in  this 
particular."  That  is,  should  a  general  have  been  needed  in  the  crisis 
apprehended,  not  a  finger  must  be  pointed  at  him  in  derision  of  his 
personal  courage,  not  a  breath  uttered  casting  a  doubt  upon  it,  how- 
ever unreasonable. 

So  it  was  the  threat  and  the  fear  of  secession  in  the  young  Kepublic 
he  had  aided  to  make  a  federal  union,  that  really  cost  us  the  prema- 
ture loss  of  such  a  man  as  Hamilton  in  1804.  The  crisis  he  feared  was 
long  in  coming — but  it  came.  And  who,  then,  would  have  thought 
that  the  question  of  slavery  would  bring  it  on?  In  the  beginning 
every  one,  both  South  and  North,  was  anxious  to  eliminate  it  from  the 
Nation,  and  was  devising  steps  for  its  gradual  disappearance.  But 
suddenly  slavery 
became  a  gold  mine 
for  the  South,  and 
uow  there  was  a 
change.  No  w 
everything  must  be 
done  to  prevent  the 
nation  from  acting 
in  its  federal  ca- 
pacity to  remove 
the  plague-spot  in  fort  lafayette  during  the  war. 

this    one  section 

that  disgraced  the  whole.  And  now,  also,  came  again  threats  of  se 
cession.  But  they  came  from  the  North  first.  Secession  was  the 
purpose  of  the  abolitionists,  and  thereby  they  hampered  and 
complicated  most  fatally  their  glorious  cause.  It  was  not  slavery  that 
made  a  division  of  sentiment  possible  at  the  North,  but  the  proposi- 
tion to  clear  the  skirts  of  the  North  by  breaking  up  the  Union  and 
casting  off  the  slave-holding  States.  This  was  seriously  contemplated 
and  advocated,  and  the  friends  of  union,  the  people  with  any  sense  of 
nationality,  could  not  endure  such  a  proposition,  even  at  the  cost  of 
retaining  slavery.  Therefore  many  men  abhorring  slavery  could  not 
be  abolitionists.  They  were  content  to  plead  guilty  to  Garrison's  ac- 
cusation of  a  "  slavish  subserviency  to  the  Union."  They  were  proud 
to  be  "  still  insanely  engaged,"  as  he  termed  it.  "  in  glorifying  the 
Union,"  and  to  be  pledging  themselves  "  to  frown  upon  all  attempts 
to  dissolve  it."  Thus  Motley  wrote:  "  The  very  reason  which  always 
prevented  me  from  being  an  abolitionist  before  the  war.  in  spite  of  my 
anti-slavery  sentiments  and  opinions,  now  forces  me  to  be  an  emanci- 
pationist. I  did  not  wish  to  see  the  Government  destroyed,  which  was 


394 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  avowed  purpose  of  the  abolitionists."  It  was  because  the  aboli- 
tionists wauled  to  destroy  the  Union,  to  secede  from  the  Southern 
States  aud  leave  them  aloue  with  their  abomination,  that  they  fouud 
such  bitter  fault  with  Lincoln  and  the  men  who,  with  him,  wanted  to 
save  the  Union  as  well  as  abolish  slavery.  It  is  for  this  reason  Wen- 
dell Phillips  sneered  bitterly  at  the  choice  of  Lincoln  as  nominee. 
"  W  ho  is  this  huckster  in  politics?  Who  is  this  country  court  advo- 
cate? "  he  exclaimed  when  the  nomination  had  been  made  in  1860.  It 
seems  scarcely  possible  that  this  excellent  man  and  eloquent  orator 
could  have  descended  to  even  a  coarser  bitterness  than  that.  But  he 
actually  published  an  article  with  the  heading:  "  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  Slave-hound  of  Illinois,"  opening  with  the  sentence:  "  We  gibbet 
a  Northern  hound  to-day,  side  by  side  with  the  infamous  Mason  of 
Virginia. "  So  strong  was  the  feeling  among  the  abolitionists  that 
secession  was  alone  right,  that  every  attempt  to  save  the  Union  with 
slavery  in  it  seemed  to  them  only  a  compromise  with  iniquity  am]  ;i 
condoning  of  it. 

It  was  a  relief  to  the  situation  in  the  North,  so  seriously  straining 
the  relations  between  men  who  had  exactly  the  same  feelings  about 
the  one  great  evil  thai  needed  abolition,  when  the  slave-holding 
States  did  what  once  the  New  England  States  came  near  doing,  and 
what  the  abolitionists  wanted  the  non-slaveholding  States  to  do. 
Lather  than  have  their  institution  even  remotely  threatened,  they 
would  sacrifice  the  Union — that  is.  destroy  the  nation.  And  the  con- 
siderations that  lay  back  of  secession  now.  were  not  unlike  those  that 
came  to  the  foreground  in  1804  or  18322  in  a  more  northerly  latitude. 

It  was  in  t  he  earlier  days  an  attachment  to  local,  sectional  interest  s 
above  those  of  the  nation;  a  selfish  determination  to  save  its  shipping 
and  manufactures,  even  at  the  expense  of  tin1  national  prosperity, 
and  the  national  honor.  So  it  was  a  devotion  to  sectional  interests, 
at  the  expense  of  national  duty,  or  conscience,  or  honor,  which  pre- 
cipitated 11k1  later  secession.  The  men  of  the  South  had  been  keen- 
sighted  and  keen-scented  regarding  slavery,  ever  since  the  cotton  cul- 
ture made  it  a  mine  of  wealth.  Even  so  innocent  and  remote  a  pro- 
ject as  internal  improvement,  in  the  way  of  canals  projected  by  the 
Government,  or  in  the  way  of  settling  and  managing  government 
lands,  was  resented  and  resisted  with  a  virulence  thai  now  seems 
either  inexplicable  or  ridiculous.  Rut  there  were  nerves  of  feeling 
running  beneath  the  surface  into  the  festering  sore  of  slavery,  which 
made  men  winch  when  any  questions  of  the  right  or  duty  of  action  on 
the  part  of  the  general  government  were  raised.  This  was  the  secret 
and  significance  of  the  Webster-Hayne  debate  of  1829;  and  in  that 
glorious  defense  of  the  principle  of  Union  and  Liberty,  as  against 
that  other  disintegrating  doctrine  of  Union  or  Liberty,  the  son  of  New 
England  forever  wiped  out  the  stain  of  the  days  of  1812.  "  The 
avowed  purpose  of  the  abolitionists,"  as  Motley  wrote,  now  f  became 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK 


395 


tile  avowed  purpose  of  the  slaveholders,"  and  therefore  "  the  whole 
case  was  turned  upside  down."  All  parties  at  the  North  could  unite 
as  one  man  to  fight  secession  and  slavery  together,  and  put  a  quietus 
on  them  both.  But  that  there  might  be  hesitancy  and  holding  back 
and  apparent  disaffection,  as  well  as  real,  in  the  States  of  the  North, 
and  therefore  among  the  citizens  of  New  York,  the  presentation  of 
these  preliminary  remarks  will  readily  explain. 

A  most  extraordinary  exhibition  of  a  real  and  deep  and  disgraceful 
disaffection  on  the  part  of  a  certain  element  in  New  York,  came  to  the 
foreground  even  before  the  Confederacy  had  been  formed,  and  while 
the  Southern  part  of  the  Union  was  still  only 'breaking  up  bit  by  bit. 
We  have  had  more  than  one  view  of  the  character  and  actions  of 
Mayor  Fernando  Wood.  The  Police  Muddle  and  the  affection  for  him 
so  effusively  displayed  by  the  "  Dead  Rabbits  "  in  1857,  had  proved 
too  much  for  his  re-election  as  Mayor  in  1858,  though  he  was  again  a 
candidate.  But  he  was  placed  on  the  shelf  for  only  a  little  while. 
The  "  reform  element,"  as  usual,  had  become  weary  of  their  well-doing 
by  the  autumn  of  1860;  so  that  in  December  the  "  Dead  Rabbits  "  and 
"  Bowery  Boys,"  and  all  of  that  ilk,  came  to  their  own  again,  and 
Fernando  Wood  once  more  became  the  Mayor  of  New  York.  He  came 
in  at  the  right  time.  It  was  now,  as  in  days  of  yore,  "  a  time  to  try 
men's  souls";  and  it  was  worth  observing  what  kind  of  a  soul  Mr. 
Wood  really  had.  He  soon  revealed  it.  South  Carolina  had  seceded 
on  December  20,  six  other  States  following  after  her  during  the 
months  of  December  and  January.  It  struck  the  Mayor  that  it  would 
be  a  fit  and  happy  thing  for  the  greatest  city  of  the  country,  with  over 
eight  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  not  so  much  less  than  some  of 
these  Southern  States,  to  do  as  they  did.  Accordingly  on  January  7, 
1861,  Mr.  Wood,  in  his  annual  message  to  the  Common  Council,  or;>< 
ularly  declared  that  disunion  was  "  a  fixed  fact."  This  being  es- 
tablished beyond  gainsaying,  Mayor  Wood  went  on  to  propose  that 
New  York  City  should  secede  from  a  Union  no  longer  intact,  and  be- 
come a  "  free  city,"  like  Hamburg  and  the  Hanseatic  towns  of  Ger- 
many, whose  commerce  had  long  been  their  sole  glory.  Then  allow- 
ing his  fancy  full  play  he  drew  a  picture  of  a  new  Arcadia,  a  country 
to  be  called  "  Tri-Insula,"  consisting  of  Manhattan,  Long,  and  Staten 
Islands.  The  message  with  its  romantic  and  euphonious  geographi- 
cal modifications — to  say  nothing  of  its  civic  creation — fell  upon 
eager  ears  and  congenial  minds.  The  Common  Council  adopted  the 
suggestion  with  wild  enthusiasm.  Having  put  such  men  in  office, 
what  else  could  New  York  expect. 

Yet  many  noble  men  in  the  city  were  sick  at  heart  when  they 
thought  of  the  action  of  their  brethren  and  fellow  citizens  at  the 
South,  and  longed  earnestly  to  win  them  back  from  their  fatal  pre- 
cipitation. Disloyalty  might  hasten  to  act  as  it  did:  loyalty  did  not 
necessarily  exclude  the  desire  to  preserve  peace  and  brotherhood. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

This  was  the  motive  of  the  famous  Pine  Street  meeting,  held  on  De- 
cember 15,  1SG0,  five  days  before  the  seceding  act  of  the  Charleston 
Convention.  Private  letters  had  been  circulated  to  men  of  promi- 
nence all  over  the  State  withoul  respect  to  party  affiliations,  asking 
them  to  unite  in -an  effort  to  conciliate  if  possible  the  spirit  of  the 
South  which  seemed  ready  to  break  out  into  that  antagonism  inn  yet 
materialized  but  on  the  very  eve  of  so  doing.  A  great  multitude  of 
favorable  replies  were  received,  so  that  two  houses  in  Pine  Street 
were  rented  instead  of  one  as  at  first  intended.  The  leaders  in  the 
movement  numbered  among  them  such  men  as  John  A.  Dix.  W  illiam 
B.  Astor,  Samuel  J.  Tilden.  Royal  Phelps.  Wilson  G.  Hunt,  and  James 
W.  Beekman.  When  the  "  peace  convention  "  met,  the  eminent  law- 
yer Charles  O'Conor  was  chosen  to  preside  over  the  sessions.  The  dis- 
cussions centered  about  several  resolu- 
tions, breathing  a  spirit  of  fraternity,  ex- 
pressing a  desire  for  the  maintenance  of 
union,  yet  in  no  weak  or  unworthy  way 
offering  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  the  higher 
principles  involved.  The  urgency  of  ap- 
peal and  the  earnestness  of  the  desire  for 
peace  and  friendship  are  evinced  by  a  let- 
ter accompanying  the  resolutions,  which 
afforded  a  better  opportunity  for  fervent 
pleading  than  was  allowed  by  the  style 
and  phraseology  appropriate  to  formal 
resolutions.  It  began  with  the  address: 
"  Fellow  Citizens  and  Brethren  of  the 
South";  and  among  other  things  said: 
••  We  make  tins  appeal  to  you  in  entire 
confidence  that  it  will  not  be  repulsed. 
.  .  We  have  asserted  your  rights  as  earnestly  as  though  they  had 
been  our  own.  You  cannot  refuse,  therefore,  to  listen  to  us.  and  to 
weigh  with  becoming  deliberation  the  reasons  we  have  for  believing 
that  the  wrongs  which  have  led  to  the  existing  alienation  between 
the  two  great  sections  of  the  country  may.  with  your  co-operation,  be 
speedily  redressed.  .  .  .  We  will  not  review  the  dark  history  of 
the  aggression  and  insult  visited  upon  you  by  abolitionists  and  their 
abettors  during  the  last  thirty-five  years.  Our  detestation  of  these 
acts  of  hostility  is  not  inferior  to  your  own.  .  .  .  We  call  on  you 
as  friends  to  delay  action  until  we  can  induce  those  through  whose 
agency  the  evil  has  been  brought  upon  us  to  listen  to  the  voice  of 
reason  and  duty.  .  .  .  We  know  that  great  changes  of  opinion 
have  already  taken  place,  .  .  .  that  errors  and  prejudices  which 
in  the  heat  of  the  canvass  were  inaccessible  to  reason  have  been  on 
cool  reflect  ion  renounced ;  nay.  more,  that  many  whose  opinions  have 
undergone  no  change  are  willing,  in  a  praiseworthy  spirit  of  patriot- 


CHARLES  O'CONOR. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


397 


isin,  to  inake  on  questions  which  are  not  fundamental  .  .  .  the 
concessions  necessary  to  preserve  the  Union  in  its  integrity,  and  to 
save  us  from  the  fatal  alternative  of  dismemberment  into  two  or  more 
empires,  jealous  of  each  other,  and  iinbittered  by  the  remembrance  of 
differences  which  we  had  not  the  justice  or  the  magnanimity  to  com- 
pose." This  letter,  with  the  resolutions,  which  were  unanimously 
adopted,  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  committee  of  which  ex-Presi- 
dent Fillmore  was  chairman,  to  be  conveyed  by  them  personally  to 
Jefferson  Davis  of  Mississippi  and  the  Governors  of  the  States  then 
most  loudly  agitating  secession,  South  Caroljna,  Georgia,  and  Ala- 
bama. But  the  appeal  was  in  vain;  and  at  least  too  late  for  South 
Carolina,  for  December  20  was  already  at  hand  before  the  Committee 
could  get  there.  Then  again,  when  the  die  had  been  cast  in  more 
than  one  State,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  called  a  large  meeting  of 
merchants  on  January  IS,  1801,  at  which  a  memorial  similar  to  the 
one  of  December  was  drawn  up,  and,  with  40,000  signatures,  sent  to 
Washington.  Once  more,  on  January  28,  a  mass  meeting  was 
called  at  Cooper  Institute.  By  resolution  three  commissioners  were 
appointed  to  visit  the  Conventions  of  all  of  the  six  States  then  seced- 
ed, to  labor  with  them  in  the  interest  of  Peace  and  the  National  integ- 
rity, the  Crittenden  Compromise  being  submitted  as  a  basis  of  con- 
ciliation. But  the  harvest  had  now  become  a  whirlwind,  and  there 
was  no  stopping  it. 

The  retiring  administration  in  I860  was  noted  for  its  inefficiency  or 
indecision,  as  is  too  well  known.  Therefore  it  is  refreshing  to  remind 
ourselves  of  the  one  brilliant  exception  in  the  person  of  a  citizen  of 
New  York.  In  January,  President  Buchanan,  thus  at  the  very  end  of 
his  term,  was  in  need  of  a  new  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  he  of- 
fered the  portfolio  to  John  A.  Dix.  The  revenue  cutters  in  many 
Southern  ports  had  been  flagitiously  and  treasonably  seized.  The 
first  care  of  Mr.  Dix,  therefore,  on  arriving  at  his  post  was  to  send  a 
special  agent  to  New  Orleans,  Mobile,  and  Galveston,  to  prevent  any 
more  such  seizures.  On  January  29,  the  agent,  a  Mr.  Jones,  tele- 
graphed the  Secretary  from  New  Orleans  that  Captain  Breshwood 
of  the  McClelland,  a  revenue  cutter  stationed  there,  refused  to  obey 
the  directions  of  the  department.  On  the  instant  Mr.  Dix  wrote  a 
reply,  to  be  forwarded  by  telegraph.  It  was  a  bold  and  brave  utter- 
ance, yet  for  its  better  effect  he  determined  to  act  with  caution.  He 
therefore  consulted  Attorney-General  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War  un- 
der Lincoln,  as  to  its  legality,  and  General  Scott,  as  to  the  military 
proprieties  involved.  Encouraged  by  these  officials  the  momentous 
dispatch  wras  wired  to  its  destination.  It  read:  "Tell  Lieut.  Cald- 
well to  arrest  Capt.  Breshwood,  assume  command  of  the  cutter,  and 
obey  the  order  I  gave  through  you.  If  Capt.  Breshwood,  after  arrest, 
undertakes  to  interfere  with  the  command  of  the  cutter,  tell  Lieut. 
Caldwell  to  consider  him  as  a  mutineer,  and  treat  him  accordingly. 


:«KS 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


If  any  one  attempts  to  haul  down  i  he  American  flag,  shoot  hiin  on  the 
spot.''  There  was  uo  weakness  or  hesitation  about  language  like 
that.  The  war  might  have  been  averted  altogether,  if  dispatches  so 
precisely  to  the  point  had  gone  to  all  the  ships  or  fortresses  within 
the  borders  of  the  States  that  were  now  rebelling  against  the  Nation. 
For  one  who  dared  lower  the  Stars  and  Stripes  there  was  but  one 
treatment  proper:  "  shooi  him  on  the  spot." 

Secession  had  raised  the  first  note  of  war  in  the  convention  at 
Charleston  on  December  20.  1XI>0.  The  first  blow  was  also  struck  in 
the  same  locality.    At  thirty  minutes  past  four,  as  one  particular 

  chronicler  records,  on  the  morning 

of  Friday,  April  12,  1861,  the  first 
gun  of  the  great  Civil  War  opened 
fire  upon  Fort  Sumter,  in  Charleston 
Harbor.  It  was  Like  Major  Pitcairn's 
pistol  shot  a  little  earlier  in  the 
morning  of  another  April  day, 
eighty-six  jears  before:  at  its  report 
a  whole  nation  rose  in  arms.  Fed- 
eral Union  rose  to  maintain  its  ne- 
cessity as  the  foundation  of  National 
existence.  Secession  rose  to  defend 
its  right  to  be.  in  disregard  of  any 
such  duty  as  nationality.  What  the 
Constitution  had  left  to  be  implied 
on  either  side,  a  sanguinary  war  had 
now  begun  to  settle.  The  conclusion 
that  the  Constitution  meant  these 
States  to  be  a  nation  has  now  been 
finally  written  in  indelible  charac- 
ters of  blood,  and  has  been  deeply 
imprinted  upon  the  heart  and  con- 
science of  our  people  by  inexpressible 
suffering.  An  incident  of  thrilling  interest  in  itself  and  particularly 
worthy  of  note  by  the  people  of  this  city  is  preserved  by  Miss  Booth 
in  her  excellent  history.  With  Major  Anderson  at  Fort  Sumter  w  as 
Peter  Hart,  a  soldier  who  had  also  served  under  him  in  the  Mexican 
campaigns.  Hart  was  a  native  of  New  York,  and  had  been  a  sergeant 
on  the  New  York  police  force.  Nine  times  during  the  bombardment 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  pierced  by  shots  from  the  Confederate 
batteries;  at  last  a  ball  struck  the  staff,  and  down  came  old  glory  to 
the  dust.  Thereupon  Peter  Hart  (as  his  name  would  show  ,  of  the  old 
Dutch  stock  of  the  city)  sprang  upon  the  parapet,  raised  and  fixed  a 
temporary  si  a  IT,  climbed  to  the  top  and  nailed  the  flag  to  it,  while  shot 
and  shell  were  pouring  all  around  him  in  a  hissing  shower.  It  re- 
mained  in   its   proud    position   nntil    the   surrender,   on    April  14. 


Gl  NERAL   W1NFIELD  SCOTT. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


"  Among  the  historic  memories  of  the  time,"  the  historian  well  ob- 
serves, "  it  is  worthy  of  record  that  a  New  Yorker  saved  the  Stars  and 
(Stripes  from  falling  in  the  hrst  historic  battle  of  the  great  war,  as  a 
New  Yorker,  Lieutenant  De  Peyster,  was  the  hrst  to  raise  them  anew 
over  the  Confederate  Capital."  Off  Sandy  Hook  Major  Anderson 
wrote  the  dispatch  to  (Secretary  of  War  Cameron,  announcing  the  sur- 
render and  the  necessity  therefor,  he  and  his  men  having  been  brought 
North  on  board  the  United  States  steamer  Baltic.  The  perusal  of  its 
terse  and  simple  description  will  at  once  satisfy  the  reader  that  they 
were  justified  in  surrendering,  Avhile  at  the  sa*tne  time  the  words  un- 
consciously bespeak  the  quiet  heroism  of  the  officer  and  his  band  of 
seventy-nine  men.  It  was  dated  April  18,  and  reads  as  follows: 
"  Having  defended  Fort  Sumter  for  thirty-four  hours,  until  the  quar- 
ters were  entirely  burned,  the  main  gates  destroyed  by  fire,  the  gorge 
walls  seriously  injured,  the  magazine  surrounded  by  dames  and  its 
door  closed  from  the  effects  of  heat,  four  barrels  and  three  cartridges 
of  powder  only  being  available,  and  no  provisions  remaining  but 
pork,  I  accepted  terms  of  evacuation  offered  by  General  Beauregard, 
being  the  same  offered  by  him  on  the  eleventh  inst.,  prior  to  the  com- 
mencement of  hostilities,  and  marched  out  of  the  fort  Sunday  after- 
noon, the  fourteenth  inst.,  with  colors  hying  and  drums  beating,  bring- 
ing away  company  and  private  property  and  saluting  my  flag  with 
fifty  guns."  A  brave  record  for  a  handful  of  men  left  unsupported  by 
the  administration  that  had  gone  out,  and  not  even  remembered  by  the 
one  that  had  just  come  in!  The  guns  fired  on  those  faithful  servants 
of  the  Nation  roused  it  to  the  supreme  effort  of  defense.  Their  modest 
heroism  and  quiet  performance  of  duty  amid  the  roar  of  artillery,  till 
human  courage  could  be  asked  to  do  no  more  except  needlessly  throw 
away  lives  that  might  serve  the  republic  on  a  better  field, — nerved  the 
hearts  of  the  North  to  simulate  such  soldierly  example.  To  do  as  well 
would  be  to  do  great  things. 

On  the  very  day  that  this  dispatch  was  sent  on  its  way  to  Washing- 
ton, from  one  of  the  telegraph  offices  of  New  York,  the  rumbling  tread 
of  marching  regiments  began  to  resound  along  her  streets.  On  the 
night  of  April  17  the  Sixth  Massachusetts  Begiment  had  reached 
the  city  per  boat  from  Boston.  The  news  spread  through  the  city 
that  they  would  be  served  with  breakfast  at  the  Astor  House,  and 
there  form  again  in  marching  order  to  take  the  train  via  Philadelphia 
to  Washington.  Broadway  along  the  Park  and  all  the  way  from  Bar- 
clay to  F niton  streets  was  one  solid  mass  of  people.  A  dense  and 
surging  sea  of  humanity  stood  upon  the  triangular  space  where  Ann 
Street  and  Park  Bow  come  together.  The  crowds  had  collected  to  see 
the  men  sally  forth  from  the  hotel  and  start  on  their  way  to  the 
front.  When  all  was  ready,  so  still  was  the  hush  of  the  vast  throng 
of  spectators,  that  distinctly  could  be  heard  the  quiet  word  of  com- 
mand, that  meant  so  much  at  such  a  moment,  "  March."   The  band  at 


100 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  head  struck  up  the  tune  "  Yankee  Doodle,"  but  ouly  a  few  strains 
of  it  were  heard.  The  peut  up  enthusiasm  of  the  people  now  burst 
forth  into  one  long  loud  cheer,  repeated  again  and  again,  it  was  a 
solemn,  an  awful,  thing  to  hear.  One  who  heard  it,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mor- 
gan Dix,  in  the  memoirs  of  his  father,  writes  of  it  thus:  "  Instantly 
there  arose  a  sound  such  as  many  a  man  never  heard  in  all  his  life, 
and  never  will  hear;  such  as  is  never  heard  more  than  once  in  a  life- 
time. Not  more  awful  is  the  thunder  of  heaven,  as  with  sudden  peal, 
it  smites  into  silence  all  lesser  sounds.  .  .  .  One  terrific  roar 
burst  from  the  multitude,  leaving  nothing  audible  save  its  own  re- 
verberation." 

Now.  day  after  day  had  its  tribute  of  excitement.  <  )n  April  19. 1861, 
auspicious  day  for  the  cause  of  a  free  nation  and  the  preservation  of 
the  Union,  and  only  a  week  since  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  on,  the  glori- 
ous Seventh  Eegiment,  nearly  a  thousand  men  strong,  followed  the 
Sixth  Massachusetts  to  the  front.  It  was  not  an  occasion  to  be  left 
without  evidences  of  the  people's  approbation  and  enthusiasm.  For 
several  weeks  the  men  had  been  going  through  extra  drills.  Three 
months  before,  their  board  of  officers,  through  the  Commandant,  had 
expressed  to  the  Governor  of  the  State  their  readiness  to  be  called 
out  for  any  duty  prescribed.  And  stout  old  General  Scott,  who  had 
resided  for  many  years  in  New  York,  and  knew  the  regiment  well,  had 
written  from  Washington  in  January  to  General  Sandford:  ••Per- 
haps no  regiment  or  company  can  be  brought  here  from  a  distance 
without  producing  hurtful  jealousies  ;n  this  vicinity.  If  there  be  an 
exception,  it  is  the  Seventh  Infantry  of  the  City  of  New  York,  which 
has  become  somewhat  National,  and  is  held  deservedly  in  the  highest 
respect."  The  pride  of  the  city  and  the  favorite  of  a  whole  nation 
could  not  be  allowed  to  depart  for  the  scene  of  war  without  an  ova- 
tion from  the  citizens.  Along  the  line  of  march  there  was  a  hue 
display  of  flags  and  bunting.  The  regiment  began  to  collect 
shortly  after  noon  on  Lafayette  Place,  opposite  the  Astor  Library. 
At  three  o'clock  the  command  to  "March"  was  spoken,  and  the 
men  moved  on  to  their  varied  destinies.  The  line  of  march  was 
into  Fourth  Street,  to  Broadway,  down  to  Cortlandt  Street,  to 
Jersey  City  Ferry.  If  any  additional  fuel  was  needed  to  inflame 
their  own  courage  and  to  excite  still  more  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
citizens, — the  news  came  just  before  they  started  that  the  Sixth 
.Massachusetts  had  been  attacked  on  its  way  through  Baltimore, 
and  three  of  her  men  had  been  killed.  Some  had  predicted 
that  the  regiment  would  be  assaulted  in  New  York:  the  lie  was  given 
to  that  expectation  in  a  most  convincing  manner.  The  shout  of  praise 
and  encouragement  that  had  drowned  their  music  on  the  previous 
day,  was  now  redoubled  all  along  the  route  which  was  taking  the 
Seventh  to  the  train  for  Washington.  The  streets  could  scarcely  be 
kept  clear  for  the  passage  of  the  troops.    Sidewalks,  house  fronts. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


401 


stoops,  windows  on  every  story,  root's,  were  one  mass  of  cheering,  wav- 
ing, excited  humanity.  It  was  more  than  sufficient  to  reconcile  the 
brave  fellows  to  all  the  hardships  of  war,  to  wounds  and  death  itself, 
to  be  thus  sent  on  their  way.  As  one  of  them  wrote:  "  An  avenue  of 
brave  honest  faces  smiled  upon  us  as  we  passed,  and  sent  a  sunshine 
into  our  hearts  that  lives  there  still."  The  next  day  the  Sixth, 
Twelfth,  and  Seventy-first  Regiments  went  on  their  way,  and  on  April 
23,  the  Eighth,  Thirteenth,  Twenty-eighth,  and  Sixty-ninth.  The 
action  of  the  Baltimore  populace  had  given  a  roundabout  turn  to  the 
journeys  of  all  our  regiments.  Colonel  Marshall  Lefferts  had  taken 
the  Seventh  around  by  Annapolis.  The  four  regiments  that  started 
on  April  20  were  taken  by  transports  to  Fortress  Monroe,  and  those 
on  the  23d  again  to  Annapolis.  Certainly  Lincoln's  administration 
did  not  begin  vigorously;  the  dilatoriness  in  dealing  with  the  Balti- 
more mob  created  much  disgust  in  New  York,  and  led  to  the  sending 
of  an  open  letter  to  the  President  demanding  that  some  determined 
movement  be  made  by  the  Government  to  re-establish  direct  com- 
munication between  Washington  and  the  North;  and  that  the  one 
disloyal  city  which  lay  in  its  rear  be  subjected  to  military  occupation 
in  order  to  effect  this. 

This  provoking  supineness  on  the  part  of  the  Government  may  have 
been  due  to  the  excessive  confidence  placed  in  the  unbounded  capaci- 
ties supposed  to  reside  in  the  old  hero  of  Lundy's  Lane,  Gen.  Winfield 
Scott.  It  is  almost  pathetic  to  observe  the  blindly  enthusiastic  con- 
fidence people  placed  in  the  old  general.  They  were  sure  there  abode 
in  him  vast  and  mysterious  possibilities,  that  were  only  waiting  some 
sudden  coup  to  startle  the  Nation,  but  wdiose  exact  course  of  action 
was  not  to  be  surmised  or  suspected.  The  historian  Motley,  writing 
to  his  wife,  reflects  this  prevailing  estimate  and  gives  us  a  vi<  v 
of  Scott's  idea  as  to  the  celerity  with  which  everything  could  be 
accomplished  :  "  To  the  question  whether  the  task  is  beyond  our 
strength  I  can  only  reply  that  General  Scott — than  whom  a  bet- 
ter strategist  and  a  more  lofty  minded  and  honorable  man  does 
not  exist — believes  that  he  can  do  it  in  a  year."  Enumerating 
the  generals  on  our  side.  Motley  again  observes:  "  to  say  nothing 
of  old  Scott,  whose  very  name  is  worth  50,000  men."  Even  when 
murmurs  of  doubt  about  the  great  and  mysterious  designs  began 
to  arise.  Motley  keeps  bright  his  faith  in  the  generalissimo. 
"  Don't  be  affected."  he  writes  on  July  14,  1861,  one  week  before  Bull 
Run,  "  by  any  sneers  or  insinuations  of  slowness  against  Scott;  I  be- 
lieve him  to  be  a  magnificent  soldier,  thoroughly  equal  to  his  work, 
and  I  trust  that  the  country  and  the  world  will  one  day  acknowledge 
that  he  has  played  a  noble  and  winning  game  with  consummate 
skill."  Unfortunately  that  day  has  never  come.  The  veteran  of  the 
War  of  1812,  now  past  his  seventy-fifth  year,  could  hardly  be  expected 
to  do  the  wonders  people  were  looking  for.  The  noble  old  general  was 


402 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


iiot  to  blame  that  his  tine  record  of  past  deeds  was  making  the  Nation 
wild  over  still  greater  deeds  to  come.  But  much  valuable  time  was 
lost,  and  the  lack  of  a  vigorous  opening  gave  the  eneiny  a  most  tre- 
mendous advantage.  From  the  one  extreme  men  went  to  the  other: 
when  the  war  was  not  ended  in  one  year,  some  intelligent  observers 
did  not  expect  to  see  it  close  except  with  the  century. 

From  these  military  incidents  we  turn  once  more  to  the  actions  of 
the  citizens  of  New  York,  now  that  the  crisis  of  war  was  actually  upon 
them.  On  the  day  that  the  Seventh  Regiment  left  for  the  front  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  held  a  meeting,  at  which  resolutions  were 
passed  urging  the  Government  to  blockade  the  ports  of  seceding 
States  "for  the  protection  of  the  commerce  of  the  United  States 
against  privateers."  A  committee  was  appointed  to  arrange  for 
placing  $9,000,000  of  the  government  loan  still  calling  for  takers. 
Before  the  meeting  broke  up  it  was  made  known  that  the  seven  regi- 
ments still  waiting  to  follow  the  Seventh  were  hampered  by  a  lack  of 
funds  for  the  journey.  A  collection  was  t  aken  up.  and  in  ten  minutes 
a  sum  of  twenty-one  thousand  dollars  was  ready  for  the  use  of  the 
troops. 

A  meeting  of  a  more  general  character  was  that  held  on  Saturday, 
April  20.  1861,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  on  Union  Square. 
It  is  estimated  that  there  were  one  hundred  thousand  people  present. 
John  A.  Dix  presided,  and  eighty-seven  vice-presidents  represented 
the  best  men  of  every  rank  and  profession.  All  the  stores  and  banks 
and  offices  were  closed.  Four  stands  had  been  provided  at  sufficient 
distances  for  the  speakers,  but  they  fell  far  short  of  the  number  need- 
ed, and  some  of  the  orators  spoke  from  the  balconies  and  stoops  of 
neighboring  houses.  Among  the  speakers  were  Professor  O.  M.  .Mit- 
chell, the  astronomer;  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  David  S.  Coddington,  and 
Col.  Edward  D.  Baker,  who  had  led  a  New  York  regiment  to  the  war 
in  Mexico.  To  stimulate  an  enthusiasm  already  sufficiently  pro- 
nounced Major  Anderson  and  his  brave  company  of  defenders  of 
Fort  Sumter  were  present,  and  displayed  the  shot-pierced  flag  that 
waved  over  the  ramparts  to  the  end  of  the  bombardment.  The  four 
stands  were  under  the  presiding  care  of  John  A.  Dix.  ex-<  iovernor 
Hamilton  Fish.  ex-Mayor  ITaveinoyer.  and  Moses  II.  Grinnell.  One 
practical  result  of  the  meeting  was  the  appointmenl  of  a  committee, 
somet  hing  like  the  Com  mil  tee  of  Safety  in  the  old  a  nte-revolut  ionary 
days.  It  was  composed  of  John  A.  Dix.  as  chairman;  William  M. 
Evarts,  as  secretary;  and  such  men  as  .Moses  Taylor,  Alexander  T. 
Stewart.  Samuel  Sloane,  Royal  Phelps,  A.  A.  Low.  In  the  evening 
the  Committee  met  in  the  building  at  80  Pine  Street,  and  took  the 
name  of  Union  [defense  Committee.  Its  duties,  as  defined  by  the  reso- 
lutions adopted  at  the  Union  Square  mass  meeting,  were  to  collect 
funds  and  to  aid  or  promote  the  movements  of  the  Government  so  far 

as  possible.    To  facilitate  these  objects  and  receive  subscriptions,  it 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


403 


sat  at  the  house  in  Pine  Street  during  the  day.  and  at  the  Fifth  Ave- 
nue Hotel  in  the  evening.  As  a  resull  of  these  efforts  to  raise  money 
the  gratifying  statement  is  made  that  in  the  course  of  three  months 
New  York  City  alone  raised  $150,000,000  in  aid  of  the  Government. 
Boston  had  reduced  her  quota  of  the  loan  asked  for  from  thirty  per 
cent,  to  twenty  per  cent.  New  York  fully  met  her  own,  and  charged 
herself  also  to  raise  Boston's  rejected  ten  per  cent.  At  the  close  of  the 
year  the  Secretary  of  Hie  Treasury  announced  the  astounding  fad 
that  of  the  .f2(i(».()()(».l)()(>  borrowed  by  (iovernment,  New  York  had  fur- 
nished no  less  than  $210,000,000. 

Nothing  so  well  illustrates  the  magic  effect  of  unifying  all  men  and 
parties   at   the  North, 

produced  by  the  gnus  ^Ug^H^k. 


General  Daniel  E.  Sick-  /^l^Z^-O^c^ts^ — -  _^e>c-^-<-~ 
lea,  who  a  few  months 

before  had  threatened  in  the  House  of  Representatives  that  the  seces- 
sion of  the  Southern  States  would  be  followed  by  that  of  New  York 
City.  By  these  resolutions  Mayor  Wood  and  his  Council  invoked 
"  the  unselfish  patriotism  and  the  unfaltering  loyalty  which  have 
been  uniformly  manifested  in  all  periods  of  National  peril  by  the 
population  of  the  City  of  New  York  and  they  felt  they  were  giving 
expression  to  the  sentiments  of  their  constituents  by  declaring  "  it  to 
be  their  unalterable  purpose,  as  it  is  their  solemn  duty,  to  do  all  in 
their  power  to  uphold  and  defend  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  and  to 
vindicate1  the  honor  of  our  hag.  and  to  crush  the  power  of  those  who 
are  enemies  in  Avar,  as  in  peace  they  were  friends."  At  this  same 
meeting  on  April  22,  the  Common  Council,  recommended  thereto  by 
the  Mayor,  authorized  the  loan  of  a  million  dollars  for  the  defense 


fired  on  Fort  Sumter, 
as  the  change  that  came 
o  v  e  r  t  h  e  Municipal 
Government  of  N  e  w 
York.  Hardly  was  the 
ink  dry  upon  the  mes- 
sage of  Mayor  Wood, 
seriously  proposing  the 
secession  of  New  York 
City,  when  the  same 
Common  Council  who 
had  hailed  the  proposi- 
tion with  fervid  ap- 
plause passed  resolu- 
tions pledging  sym- 
pathy and  support  to 
the  Union  cause.  And 
these  were  drafted  by 


404 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  the  Union;  later  they  authorized  a  loan  of  f 500, 000,  in  aid  of 
the  families  of  volunteers,  payable  July  1,  1862.  Nay.  to  swell  the  list 
of  wonderful  events  at  this  period  so  fraught  with  them,  and  to  do 
justice  to  the  memory  of  one  not  hitherto  mentioned  with  any  too  high 
respect,  it  must  also  be  recorded  that  Mayor  Fernando  Wood  had 
issued  a  proclamation  to  the  people  of  New  York,  on  April  15,  18G1, 
when  the  reverberation  of  the  last  gun  leveled  at  .Major  Anderson's 
devoted  garrison  had  hardly  ceased.  In  this  he  exhorted:  "  Let  us 
ignore  the  past,  rising  superior  to  partisan  considerations,  and  rally 
to  the  restoration  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  as  they  existed 
in  the  days  and  in  the  spirit  of  our  fathers."  Certainly  no  fault  could 
be  found  with  such  language,  and  if  the  blow  of  the  South  at  the 
North  could  produce  such  results  upon  men  of  Wood's  stamp,  it 
would  seem  as  if  they  never  made  so  great  a  mistake  as  when  they 
resorted  to  violence  to  procure  their  ends.  And  the  yery  origin  of 
these  sentiments  and  resolutions  was  of  such  significance  that  they 
awakened  particular  comfort  in  the  heart  of  those  charged  with  the 
care  of  the  Nations  affairs  at  this  critical  period.  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to 
Gen.  Sickles  regarding  the  action  of  the  Common  Council,  on  reading 
the  resolutions:  "I  felt  my  burden  lighter.  I  felt  that  when  men 
broke  through  party  lines  and  took  this  patriotic  stand  for  the  (iov- 
ernment  and  the  Union,  all  must  come  out  well  iu  the  end.  xVhen  von 
see  them,  tell  them  for  me  they  made  my  heart  glad,  and  1  can  only 
say,  God  bless  them."  It  is  a  little  unfortunate  that  historians  who 
make  a  good  deal  of  the  act  of  disloyalty  in  January  have  not  a  word 
to  say  of  the  ample  atonement  therefor  made  in  April.  The  actual 
descent  of  the  thunderbolt  of  war  revolutionized  many  a  man's  (pin- 
ions on  the  issues  of  the  times.  The  Common  Council  and  Mayor 
should  also  have  the  benefit  of  the  mantle  of  charity  we  are  disposed 
to  cast  over  former  sentiments  or  acts,  when  the  later  attitude  was 
such  as  we  can  approve. 

All  this  time  there  had  been  no  clash  of  arms  since  Fort  Sumter. 
When  it  came,  at  fateful  Bull  Run,  July  21, 1861,  il  plunged  the  North 
into  the  deepest  gloom  and  mortification.  We  turn  again  to  Motley's 
letters,  valuable  as  those  of  a  man  eminent  in  letters  and  a  profound 
student  of  human  affairs  past  and  present, — and  we  hud  one  written 
to  his  wife  two  days  after  the  battle  from  which  we  may  gather  how 
the  people  of  the  North  received  the  news  of  it.  Motley's  language 
seems  almost  extravagant,  yet  without  doubt  lie  only  reflects  what 
was  the  feeling  of  all  ardent  supporters  of  the  Northern  cause.  "  I 
pity  you  and  my  children  inexpressibly  to  be  alone  there."  i.e..  in  Eng- 
land. "  Don't  show  this  letter  to  any  one.  I  hope  you  are  not  in  Lon- 
don." It  would  seem  as  if  a  personal  disgrace  had  fallen  upon  a  mem- 
ber of  the  household.    "  We  are  for  the  moment  overwhelmed  with 

gloom.  The  measure  of  our  dishonor,  which  I  thought  last 

niL'ht  so  in-eat  as  to  make  me  hans  mv  head  forever,  1  cannot  now 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


405 


thoroughly  estimate."  But  after  all  the  defeat  was  uot  one  to  dis- 
courage all  hope.  Our  soldiers  had  been  left  unaccountably  unsup- 
ported, probably  while  some  of  those  ineffable  plans  of  Gen.  Scott's 
were  being  cogitated.  The  men  who  finally  ran  had  fought  bravely 
for  four  or  five  hours  under  a  burning  Virginia  sun,  "  till  their 
tongues  fairly  hung  out  of  their  mouths  "  with  thirst  and  exhaustion. 
They  had  gone  up  into  the  face  of  concealed  batteries  blazing  death 
and  destruction,  and  had  taken  one  after  another  of  them.  When  re- 
inforcements came  up  for  the  enemy,  a  lot  of  camp  followers  and 
hangers  on,  teamsters,  newspaper  reporters,  all  too  curious  Members 
of  Congress,  and  more  such  useless  lumber,  started  a  panic.  This 
communicated  itself  to  the  troops,  physically  unable  to  endure  any 
more  strain,  and  disappointed  by  the  non-arrival  of  the  reserves.  The 
rout  was  complete,  the  defeat  stinging,  but  the  men  of  the  North  had 
played  the  soldier  nobly  so  long  as  nature  could  possibly  hold  out, 
and — 'k  some  one  had  blundered."  It  did  not  discourage  the  men  of 
New  York  City  or  State  from  going  to  the  front.  It  only  hastened 
them  on  to  scenes  where  their  presence  was  so  much  needed.  Lincoln 
had  called  for  75,000  men  in  April,  of  which  New  York's  quota  would 
have  been  13,000.  The  Legislature  authorized  the  enlistment  of  30,- 
000  men  for  two  years  instead  of  three  months,  according  to  the  Presi- 
dent's call.  When  July  1  came  the  State  had  46,700  men  in  the  field, 
of  whom  only  8,300  were  three-months  men.  Before  January  1,  1862, 
the  number  of  our  troops  had  reached  120,361,  or  one-sixth  of  the 
number  of  able-bodied  men  in  the  State. 

Of  all  the  conflicts  of  the  war  perhaps  the  most  sensational  was 
that  in  Hampton  Roads,  off  Old  Point  Comfort  and  Fortress  Monroe, 
and  in  that  New  York  City  had  a  direct  interest.  On  March  8,  1862, 
a  peculiar  craft  came  out  of  Norfolk  Harbor  to  make  an  attack  upon 
the  United  States  fleet  lying  in  Hampton  Roads.  It  was  a  vessel's 
hull  covered  by  a  triangular-shaped  deckhouse,  no  masts  or  any  other 
gear  but  a  smokestack  outside.  The  ships  opened  their  broadsides 
upon  her,  but  without  the  slightest  effect,  and  she  went  about  from 
one  ship  to  another,  ramming  a  steel  prow  into  their  wooden  sides, 
and  sinking  two,  the  Cumberland  and  the  Congress.  Content  with 
her  work  she  went  back  to  her  shelter  at  Norfolk.  The  next  day  she 
came  forth  again,  and  proceeded  to  belabor  and  probably  sink  the 
U.  S.  ship  Minnesota,  when  from  behind  the  latter  steamed  a  craft 
still  more  curious  than  the  floating  Confederate  battering-ram.  It 
was  the  Monitor,  commanded  by  Lieut.  Worden,  constructed  at  New 
York  from  designs  of  John  Ericsson.  Its  sides  rose  but  eighteen 
inches  above  the  water,  and  were  almost  impossible  to  hit:  from  the 
center  rose  a  circular  turret  nine  feet  high  and  twenty  feet  in  diam- 
eter, revolving  at  will,  and  presenting  only  two  guns,  but  they  were 
heavy  ones.  The  Merrimac  was  fairly  beaten  at  her  own  tactics. 
Firing  on  the  Monitor  had  no  effect,  the  deepest  indentation  made  on 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


her  at  close  range  being 
about  four  inches.  But  the 
Merrimac  experienced  dif- 
ferent  results,  and  her  ram, 
instead  of  disabling  the  little 
.Monitor,  got  wrenched  in  the 
encounter,  starting  her  tim- 
bers and  springing  a  bad 
leak.  Her  smokestack  and 
steampipe  had  been  pene- 
trated by  shot,  and  her  an- 
chor and  flagstaff  shot  away. 
All  this  was  done  at  leisure 
by  the  gunners  within  the 
.Monitor's  turret,  which  had 
received  one  indentation  of 
about  an  inch  and  a  half; 
while  she  had  no  superflu- 
ous gearing  to  be  shot  away. 
The  Merrimac  therefore  was 
fain  to  retire  and  postpone 
the  destruction  of  more  U. 
S.  ships  until  such  time  as 
there  were  no  Monitors 
about.  As  is  well  known, 
the  construction  of  this  ves- 
sel in  the  harbor  of  New 
York  by  the  genius  of  one 
of  her  citizens,  and  the  capi- 
tal and  enterprise  of  others, 
not  only  saved  our  fleet  in 
the  Virginia  waters,  but 
revolutionized  naval  war- 
fare. And  no  sooner  was  it 
known  what  havoc  the  Mer- 
rimac had  made  among  the 
U.  S.  shipping  than  another 
citizen  of  New  York.  Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt.  present- 
ed one  of  his  largest  and 
strongest  steamers  of  the 
Panama  and  Pacific  service, 
the  Vanderbilt.  t<>  the  Gov- 
ernment, fitting  her  com- 
pletely for  defense  against 
the  new  destroyer. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


407 


Ever  since  Florence  Nightingale,  in  the  wake  of  war  follows  com- 
passion, ami  man's  worst  work  of  destruction  and  mutilation  and 
death  gives  the  opportunity  for  woman's  best  ministrations  of  mercy 
and  tenderness.  The  women  of  New  York  were  not  behind  in  this 
labor  of  love.  Let  a  woman  tell  the  story.  "  On  the  25th  of  April 
(1S01)  a  number  of  ladies  met  at  a  private  house  and  formed  the  plan 
of  a  Central  Relief  Association.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  call 
a  meeting  of  the  women  of  New  York  at  Cooper  Institute  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  29th  to  concert  measures  for  the  relief  of  the  sick  and 
wounded.  The  largest  gathering  of  women  ever  seen  in  the  city  re- 
sponded to  the  appeal."  These  patriotic  women  were  addressed  by 
eminent  speakers,  among  them  Vice-President  Hannibal  Hamlin  and 
the  .Rev.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  Bryant's  pastor.  Out  of  this  meeting 
grew  a  permanent  organization,  the  Association  for  the  Relief  of  Sick 
and  Wounded  in  the  Army.  At  Mr.  Bellows's  advice  a  committee 
went  to  Washington  to  hold  a  conference  with  the  Secretary  of  War, 
to  determine  how  the  women  of  the  country  could  best  supplement 
the  labors  of  the  medical  department  of  the  army, — the  committee 
comprising  women  of  the  Association  for  the  Relief  of  the  Sick  and 
Wounded  of  the  Army,  members  of  the  Board  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons of  the  New  Y'ork  hospitals,  and  of  the  New  YTork  Medical  As- 
sociation for  furnishing  hospital  supplies  for  the  army.  The  result 
of  this  conference  was  the  organization  of  the  "  United  States  Sani- 
tary Commission."  Soon  all  over  the  city,  "  thousands  of  women  and 
even  children,  devoted  themselves  to  scraping  lint,  knitting  socks, 
making  garments,  and  preparing  delicacies  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
whom  they  saw  in  perspective;  and  scores  of  the  most  tenderly  reared 
and  delicate  young  ladies  volunteered  their  services  as  hospital 
nurses,  and  went  into  training  under  the  directions  of  the  city  phy- 
sicians." It  was  characteristic  of  the  women  that  they  saw  to  it  that 
the  requisite  amount  of  funds  for  their  work  should  be  acquired,  and 
they  resorted  to  the  device  of  fairs  held  in  all  the  large  cities  in  the 
Northern  States,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1864.  These  were  held 
under  the  immediate  auspices  of  the  women  of  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission.  The  one  in  New  York  was  called  the  Metro- 
politan Fair.  It  was  opened  to  the  public  on  the  morning  of  April  5, 
1864.  On  the  previous  evening  the  main  building  in  Fourteenth 
Street  near  Sixth  Avenue  was  opened  with  exercises  comprising  a 
hymn  written  by  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  and  an  oration  by 
Joseph  H.  Choate;  while  in  the  afternoon  there  had  been  a  parade  of 
troops,  regular,  militia,  and  volunteer,  in  its  honor.  Another  build- 
ing,  on  Seventeenth  Street  and  Union  Square  was  also  utilized  for  the 
exhibit  and  sale  of  articles.  The  fair  lasted  three  weeks.  It  brought 
a  sum  immensely  in  advance  of  those  realized  in  other  cities;  for  while 
Chicago's  fair  brought  $60,000;  Boston's  $140,000;  and  Cincinnati's 
$250,000;  New  York's  yielded  $1,100,000.    Her  close  neighbor,  and 


408 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


present  borough,  Brooklyn,  also  surpassed  the  other  cities,  raising 
$500,000.  The  building  on  Seventeenth  Street  contained  a  Dutch 
kitchen,  furnished  in  Colonial  style  by  genuine  relics  of  the  days  of 
New  Amsterdam,  loaned  by  descendants  of  Director  Stuyvesant.  A 
special  and  somewhat  kindred  feature  of  the  division  of  the  fair  in  the 
Fourteenth  Street  building  was  a  Sunny  Side  pavilion,  containing  a 
choice  collection  of  Washington  Irving  mementoes.  Mrs.  Caroline  M. 
Kirkland  was  a  leading  spirit  in  this  great  enterprise,  and  by  her  as- 
siduous labors  so  overtaxed  her  strength  that  she  died  shortly  after- 
ward, a  victim  to  her  patriotic  zeal.  By  the  side  of  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission  rose  up  other  organizations  seeking  the  relief 
or  welfare  of  the  soldiers.  Such  was  the  "  Loyal  Publication  Society 
of  New  York."  At  least  eighty-eight  pamphlets  and  books  issued 
from  this  society  for  distribution  among  the  men  in  the  field.  The 
United  States  Christian  Commission  was  also  initiated  in  New  York, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  of  the 


land,  here  assembled  in  convention,  November  16,  1861;  seeking  not 
only  the  physical  comfort  but  also  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  sol- 
diers. And  in  1864  was  organized  under  the  leadership  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Joseph  P.  Thompson,  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  the  United 
States  Union  Commission,  intended  to  minister  to  the  necessities  of 
refugees  from  the  South.  A  Soldiers'  Rest  was  instituted  by  the 
benevolence  of  the  Union  League  Club,  on  Fourth  Avenue  near  the 
Harlem  Railroad  Depot,  between  Twenty-sixth  and  Twenty-seventh 
streets  mow  occupied  by  Madison  Square  (iarden).  Here  soldiers 
arriving  or  leaving  the  city  could  find  a  temporary  home  during  their 
stay. 

The  guns  tired  on  Fort  Sumter,  among  other  tine  things  they  did  for 
the  North,  sounded  the  knell  of  slavery.  The  logical  effect  of  secession, 
as  an  act  of  legislation,  might  have  been  only  separation.  But  the  acl 
of  war  begun  by  the  South  unified  the  North  in  the  purpose  to  resist, 
and   the  logical  effect   Of  war  was  abolition.     It    became  a  war 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


409 


measure,  a  strategic  move  on  the  enemy's  works.  The  question  of 
secession  and  its  right  or  righteousness  being  out  of  the  way, — be- 
yond all  dispute  accepted  at  the  North  as  being  wrong  on  the  basis  of 
war, — there  rose  only  one  other  question  on  the  horizon,  on  which  all 
men  at  the  North  were  united  except  when  that  of  secession  came  in 
to  obscure  or  complicate  it.  Upon  the  removal  of  slavery  from  the 
Union,  should  that  Union  ever  be  restored, — upon  this  the  men  who 
fought  and  bled  and  showered  treasure,  the  women  who  suffered  the 
anguish  of  bereavement  day  by  day,  so  that  the  Union  might  be  re- 
stored and  preserved, — all  insisted  with  a  hjoly  earnestness.  This 
Lincoln  saw,  but  would  not  act  a  moment  before  he  had  seen  it,  for  he 
would  move  only  just  so  far  as  he  had  the  people  with  him.  On  Janu- 
ary 1,  1863,  he  issued  the  proclamation  of  Emancipation.  It  had  to 
be  a  war  measure.  It  was  an  act  not  /^-Constitutional,  but  extra- 
Constitutional,  for  which  that  document  had  made  no  provision,  giv- 
ing no  right,  withholding  no  right.  It  was  indeed  "  justified  by  the 
Constitution,"  but  only  "  upon  military  necessity."  That  military 
necessity  the  guns  at  Fort  Sumter  had  kindly  provided.  And  this 
proclamation, — the  most  important  American  State  paper  since  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  giving  at  last  unreserved  effect  to  the 
words  of  the  Declaration,  and  taking  the  ring  of  mockery  out  of  it 
which  both  cynics  and  earnest  friends  of  liberty  had  always  been 
hearing, — this  proclamation  had  results  of  the  greatest  importance 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  as  a  strategic  movement  in  the  conduct  of 
the  war.  It  unified  all  parties  at  home,  and  simplified  the  issue  that 
was  joined.  And  in  it  lay  the  only  hope  of  preventing  interference  on 
the  part  of  the  governments  of  Europe.  Motley,  now  United  States 
Minister  to  Austria,  a  close  and  penetrating  observer,  wrote:  "  Our 
great  danger  comes  from  foreign  interference.  What  will  prevent 
that?  Our  utterly  defeating  the  Confederates  in  some  great  and  con- 
clusive battle,  or  our  possession  of  the  cotton  ports  and  opening  them 
to  European  trade,  or  a  most  unequivocal  policy  of  slave  emancipa- 
tion. .  .  .  The  last  measure  is  to  my  mind  the  most  important." 
When,  therefore,  Lincoln  had  issued  his  proclamation  the  enemies  of 
the  North  abroad  were  nonplussed.  Agents  of  the  Confederacy  had 
industriously  spread  the  impression  at  European  capitals  that  the 
North  was  as  much  in  favor  of  slavery  as  the  South.  The  question  of 
Union,  or  no  Union,  Confederation  or  Federation,  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected  to  interest  foreigners,  or  to  appeal  to  their  sympathies  one  way 
or  the  other.  But  in  slavery  or  no  slavery  lay  a  principle  of  universal 
interest,  which  was  certain  to  enlist  the  people  of  the  various  coun- 
tries of  Europe  on  the  side  of  anti-slavery.  Thus  Motley  was  soon  en- 
abled to  write  with  a  sense  of  great  relief:  "  The  President's  procla- 
mation was  just  in  time.  Had  it  been  delayed  it  is  possible  England 
would  have  accepted  the  invitation  of  France,  and  that  invitation  was 
in  reality  to  recognize  the  slaveholders'  confederacy,  and  to  make  with 


410 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


it  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive.  .  .  .  Nothing  has  saved  us 
from  this  disaster  thus  far  except  the  anti-slavery  feeling  in  England, 
which  throughout  the  country,  although  not  so  much  in  high  places, 
is  the  predominant  popular  instinct  in  England  which  no  statesman 
dai  cs  confront."  ■  The  proclamation  also  came  in  time  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  loyal  men  in  New  York  City.  The  progress  of  the  war, 
with  frequent  advantages  on  the  part  of  the  South,  had  served  to  dis- 
sipate that  skin-deep  loyalty  of  April,  1801,  which  had  covered  up  the 
ridiculous  outburst  of  disloyalty  in  January  on  the  part  of  the  city  of- 
ficials. Since  success  did  not  uniformly  attend  the  Union  armies,  the 
righteousness  of  the  Union  cause  did  not  seem  so  clear  to  Mayor 
Wood  and  his  party.  In  June,  1802,  a  mass  meeting  had  been  held 
in  New  York  attended  by  delegates  from  all  over  the  State,  at  which 
resolutions  were  adopted  strongly  criticising  the  President  and  his 
administration,  and  demanding  the  proposition  of  compromises  to 
secure  the  return  of  peace.  In  the  election  for  Governor  the  party 
cherishing  such  notions  was  victorious  at  the  polls,  and  Horatio  Sey- 
mour, who  was  well  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  war.  was  now  at  the 
head  of  the  State.  All  this  boded  trouble,  and  a  few  months  brought 
it  arouud.  Yet  in  the  face  of  this  state  of  things,  perhaps  nothing 
(■(Mild  have  been  so  useful  and  helpful  to  the  right  cause  as  the  direct 
challenge  of  men  of  all  parties  upon  the  matter  of  slavery.  It  detined 
the  rock  upon  which  the  country  had  been  driven  to  its  destruction, 
and  none  but  the  actual  enemies  of  the  Kepublic  could  refuse  to  leud 
a  hand  in  ridding  the  country  of  that  fatal  obstruction.  It  braced  t  he 
friends  of  the  Government  to  new  efforts  for  rousing  the  citizens  to 
patriotic  sentiment  and  actions.  War  meetings  were  held,  organiza- 
tions in  support  of  the  administration  were  formed;  the  President;,  by 
an  almost  divine  instinct,  had  done  the  thing  which  the  popular  heart 
and  conscience  wanted  done,  and  the  great  popular  heart  of  New 
York  was  not  out  of  unison  w  ith  that  of  the  rest  of  the  country.  Poli- 
ticians and  partisans  might  confuse  with  their  coarse  clamor,  but 
they  could  not  silence  the  conscience  of  a  whole  community,  and  the 
response  of  the  popular  conscience  to  the  righteousness  Of  Emanci- 
pation put  to  iliglit  the  sophistries  and  seductions  of  the  aliens. 
Hence  there  was  a  re-establishment  of  confidence,  and  a  confirming 
of  the  people's  purpose  to  maintain  the  conllict  till  the  simple  issue 
now  raised  before  them  was  forever  settled.  And  one  of  the  results 
was  the  organization  of  the  Union  League  Club,  founded  on  "the 
broad  basis  of  unqualified  loyalty  to  the  Government  of  the  country, 
and  unswerving  support  of  its  efforts  for  the  suppression  of  the  re- 
bellion." It  counted  among  ils  members  every  loyal  citizen  of  any 
note  in  the  town.  As  one  enthusiastic  chronicler  observes:  "The 
history  of  the  Union  League  Club  is  the  history  of  New  York  patriot- 
ism." 

We  are  hastening  on  now  to  an  episode  in  our  city's  history,  belong- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  VURK. 


411 


ing  to  Hi*'  year  of  i  hf  Proclamation  (1863),  which  we  shrink  from  re- 
counting, yet  which  inevitably  comes  across  the  progress  of  our 
narrative.  We  may  put  oil'  the  agony  by  stopping  to  note  a  few  mis- 
cellaneous details.  A  gratifying  incident  took  place  soon  after  the 
memorable  hrst  of  January,  1863.  One  of  the  most  active  spirits  in 
the  support  of  the  Administration  was  Thurlow  Weed.  He  was  edi- 
tor of  the  Albany  Journal,  and  had  been  one  of  those  who  had  pro- 
voked the  libel  suits  of  the  novelist  Cooper.  He  was  now  a  resident 
of  New  York  City,  and  his  name  appears  prominently  in  all  the  move- 
ments originating  there  in  aid  of  the  war.  On  February  18,  1863,  the 
President  summoned  Mr.  Weed  to  Washington  on  urgent  business, 
not  explained  in  the  telegram  that  was  sent  to  him.  At  the  inter- 
view Mr.  Lincoln  told  him  that  money  was  needed  immediately 
for  some  important  purpose,  but  that  there  was  no  appropria- 
tion from  which  it  could  be  legitimately  drawn.  "  How  much  is  re- 
quired? "  asked  Mr.  Weed.  "  Fifteen  thousand  dollars,"  was  the 
reply.  "  If  you  must  have  it,  give  me  two  lines  to  that  effect,"  re- 
joined Mr.  Weed.  The  President  turned  and  wrote:  "  Mr.  Weed,  the 
matters  I  spoke  to  you  about  are  important.  I  hope  you  will  not 
neglect  them.  Truly  yours,  A.  Lincoln."  Thurlow  Weed,  armed  with 
this  laconic  missive,  took  the  next  train  for  New  York,  and  in  an  in- 
credibly short  time  he  had  obtained  from  eleven  individuals  and  four 
firms,  one  thousand  dollars  each. 

Another  gratifying  circumstance  is  that  three  citizens  of  New  York 
(including  Brooklyn)  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  serving  the  coun- 
try's cause  abroad.  The  President  was  fully  aware  of  the  desperate 
efforts  that  were  being  made  by  the  Government  of  the  Southern 
States  to  put  their  favorably  as  possible  before  the  courts  of 

Europe,  so  as  to  neutralize  the  defense  of  slavery  to  which  it  was  com- 
mitted. There  was  unfortunately  too  much  of  an  inclination  among 
English  and  French  statesmen  to  aid  the  South,  if  only  to  break  up 
the  hated  Union.  Therefore  Mr.  Lincoln  requested  certain  men  of 
note  and  influence  to  present  our  cause  abroad,  emphasizing  that  the 
real  issue  at  bottom  was  the  preservation  or  abolition  of  slavery,  a 
system  no  government  of  Europe  dared  to  uphold  or  foster  in  the 
slightest  degree.  One  of  these  men  was  Archbishop  John  Hughes,  of 
the  Catholic  Church  of  New  York.  Another  was  Bishop  Mcllvaine, 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  of  Ohio;  a  third  was  General  Scott,  who  was 
now  a  private  citizen  of  the  metropolis,  traveling  in  Europe.  In  No- 
vember 1861,  General  Scott  had  resigned  his  commission,  the  weight 
of  years  fully  justifying  the  step.  He  had  at  once  come  back  to  Newr 
York,  and  here  a  delegation  from  the  Union  Defense  Committee  called 
on  him  at  the  Brevoort  House,  on  Fifth  Avenue  corner  of  Eighth 
Street,  to  present  him  with  an  address.  Ex-Governor  Hamilton  Fish 
led  the  delegation,  and  Judge  Edwards  Pierrepont  as  spokesman 
gracefully  alluded  to  his  retirement  in  the  words:  "It  will  be 


412  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

the  crowning  glory  of  jour  honored  life  that    .    .    .    you  had  the 

wisdom  from  on  high  to  retire  at 
the  fitting  hour,  and  thus  to  make 
the  glories  of  your  setting  sun  in- 
effably more  bright  for  the  radiant 
luster  which  they  shed  upon  the 
young  and  dawning  hope  of  your  be- 
loved land."  In  18G2  he  went  to  Eu- 
rope and  remained  there  for  some 
years.  lie  was  eminently  fitted  to 
do  the  tactful,  delicate  work  now 
asked  of  him  by  the  President.  For 
many  years  previous  to  the  war, 
during  Indian  troubles,  or  in 
the  Nullification  muddle  in  South 
Carolina,  "  wherever  there  was 
imminent  danger  of  war  and  a 
strong  desire  to  keep  the  peace, 
all  thoughts  turned  instinctively 
to  Scott  as  a  fit  instrument  of  an  amicable  settlement,  and  his 
success  always  justified  the  choice.7'  His  main  faults  (perhaps 
leaning  to  virtue's  side)  were  an  inclination  to  personal  vanity 
and  a  somewhat  pompous  ceremoniousness  of  manner,  much  em- 
phasized by  his  portly  and  massive  form.  This  made  his  posi- 
tion at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  somewhat  extravagant;  but  for 
the  present  purpose  he  was  calculated  to  be  of  infinite  service  to 
his  county.  And  there  was  another,  whose  work  in  England  partook 
of  the  sublime  and  the  heroic.  In  1863  Henry  Ward  Beecher  deliv- 
ered five  great  speeches  in  as  many  cities  of  Great  Britain,  Manches- 
ter. Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  Liverpool,  and  London.  He  was  hissed,  in- 
terrupted, insulted,  but  his  imperturbable  good  humor,  readiness  of 
wit.  matchless  moral  courage,  power  of  argument,  and  eloquence  of 
speech,  carried  everything  before  him.  enabling  him  to  place  before 
the  English  public  a  fair  view  of  the  situation  in  America,  which, 
rightly  presented,  was  such  as  to  insure  the  heartiest  sympathy  and 
support  for  the  North.  These  speeches,  it  has  been  said,  did  more  for 
the  Union  cause  in  Great  Britain  than  all  that  had  before  been  said 
or  written.  Perhaps  had  it  not  been  for  the  presence  in  England  of 
I'd  simps  Hughes  and  Mcllvaine  and  General  Scott,  at  the  time  of  the 
Trent  affair,  it  would  not  have  been  possible  to  avert  the  war  between 
England  and  the  "Northern  States  which  then  seemed  so  inevitable; 
it  was  hard  enough  to  do  so  as  it  was. 

New  York,  in  its  earlier  history,  stands  preeminent  among  the  cities 
of  the  country  for  the  frequency  and  violence  of  her  riots.  Chicago, 
and  other  Western  cities,  may  have  borne  away  the  palm  from  her  in 
this  respect  lately.  Put  up  to  the  year        — with  the  Doctor's  Mob  of 


ADMIRAL  JOHN    I).  WOKDEX. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


413 


1788,  the  riots  of  1834,  1835,  1837,  1819,  and  the  "  Dead  Babbits  "  ex- 
ploits of  1857,  not  to  mention  Mayor  Wood's  performances  with  his 
"  own  "  police  in  the  same  year,  all  garnishing  the  record — New  York 
is  not  easily  excelled.  In  1863  she  added  to  that  record  the  worst, 
bloodiest,  most  destructive  and  brutal  riot  of  all.  It  goes  by  the  name 
of  the  "  Draft  Riots."  Call  after  call  for  volunteer  troops  had  been 
necessary,  but  those  who  do  not  go  forward  at  the  first  or  second  call 
of  that  kind  are  still  more  deaf  to  subsequent  ones.  Again,  it  had  bo- 
come  easily  noticeable  that  men  raised  in  this  volunteer  fashion  were 
not  soon  made  into  efficient  troops.  Their  officers  were  elected  by 
themselves,  and  therefore  deferred  to  their  subordinates  rather  than 
commanded  them.  These  officers,  too,  were  inexperienced,  popular 
choice  elevating  them  for  popular  points  and  bonhommie  rather  than 
for  military  qualities  or  experience.  It  was  often  a  year  or  more  before 
such  troops  could  take  the  field,  and  a  whole  year's  wages  were 
wasted.  Many  men  of  influence  accordingly  urged  the  President  to 
raise  troops  by  the  European  method  of  conscription:  that  is,  requir- 
ing all  male  citizens  between  defined  ages  to  come  forward  to  certain 
places  thereto  appointed,  and  draw  lots,  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
lots  quitting  of  the  obligation  to  serve,  but  those  calling  for  enlist- 
ment to  be  enforced  or  to  be  redeemed  by  payment  of  a  substitute. 
There  were  a  good  many  thousands  of  persons  throughout  the  country 
who  did  not  wish  to  enter  the  army,  but  were  willing  to  pay  others  for 
doing  so,  and  they  wanted  a  uniform  regulation  compelling  those 
neither  willing  to  go  nor  to  pay  to  contribute  equally  with  them- 
selves. In  December,  1862,  the  complaint  was  general  that  the  eager- 
ness to  go  to  the  front  had  vanished,  and  by  the  summer  of  1863  the 
men  who  had  enlisted  for  two  years  would  be  returning  home.  The 
sentiment  about  conscription  being  such  as  it  was,  and  being  known 
to  the  President,  it  was  deemed  expedient  to  put  that  system  of  rais- 
ing an  army  into  operation.  Accordingly  on  March  3,  1863,  Congress 
passed  the  "  Enrollment  and  Conscription  Act."  By  this  the  Presi- 
dent was  given  authority  to  recruit  the  army,  when  a  deficiency  threat- 
ened, by  ordering  a  drawing  of  lots  by  citizens  between  the  ages  of 
twenty  and  forty-five.  The  men  drafted  were  allowed  to  pay  |300  for 
a  substitute  if  they  did  not  wish  to  go  to  the  front  themselves. 

The  draft  needed  to  be  applied  to  New  York  State  and  city  sooner 
than  anywhere  else.  The  conditions  of  1861  no  longer  prevailed,  there 
being  a  deficiency  of  her  men  in  the  field,  instead  of  more  than  her 
quota,  as  at  first.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1862,  it  was  reported  to  the 
department  that  since  July,  1862,  New  York  State  was  short  28,517 
men  in  volunteers,  of  which  18,523  was  to  be  charged  to  New  York 
City.  But  for  this  very  reason  conscription  was  least  likely  to  be  wel- 
comed here.  The  revulsion  in  sentiment  had  carried  an  anti-war  Gov- 
ernor, Horatio  Seymour,  into  office.  He  could  not  but  obey  an  order 
to  institute  the  draft,  but  his  reflections  upon  it  were  such  as  to  in- 


4U 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


flame  the  worst  prejudices.  He  claimed  that  the  report  of  his  State's 
deficiency  in  volunteers  was  not  correct;  and  boldly  intimated  that 
undue  quotas  were  saddled  upon  districts  known  to  be  prevalently 
Democratic.  Although  the  act  of  March  3  had  called  for  animmediate 
enrollment  in  such  States  as  were  deficient  in  their  contingent  of 
troops,  the  examination  of  documents  to  refute  these  claims  of  Gov- 
ernor Seymour  delayed  the  draft  in  New  York  until  July.  When  the 
operation  of  the  draft  could  no  longer  b<*  averted,  there  were  those 
who  did  not  scruple  to  excite  those  dangerous  elements  of  the  New 
York  populace  which  had  so  often  made  her  streets  fields  of  sanguin- 
ary battle  Since  early  in  1863  there  had  been  ai  work  in  the  city 
an  organization  calling  itself  by  the  innocent  title  of  "  The  Sociel y  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Political  Knowledge."  It  disseminated  books,  pam- 
phlets, papers,  advocating  disloyalty  of  the  rankest  kind.  It  was  to 
counteract  this  that  the  "  Loyal  Publication  Society  *'  was  formed. 
One  of  the  newspapers  of  the  city,  too,  scrupled  not  to  act  as  the  organ 
and  mouthpiece  of  such  hostility  to  the  Administration  as  had  taken 
shape  in  the  mass  meeting  of  June.  L862,  already  mentioned;  and 
which  had  carried  the  electiou  of  Seymour  in  the  autumn.  The  Daily 
News  unblushingly  charged  that  "the  evident  design  of  those1  who 
have  the  Conscription  Act  in  hand  iu  this  State  is  to  lessen  the  num- 
ber of  Democratic  votes."  This  would  be  enough  to  arouse  prejudice; 
it  was  only  a  shade  less  respectable,  however,  than  the  Governor's 
intimation  of  a  similar  character-,  that  Democratic  districts  were  dis- 
criminated against  in  the  amount  of  the  quota  of  men  required.  But 
a  still  more  inflammatory  statement  was  this:  "  (  me  out  of  about  t  wo 
and  a  half  of  our  citizens  are  destined  to  be  brought  over  into  .Messrs. 
Lincoln  and  Company's  charnel  house."  The  secret  emissaries  of  the 
South,  always  present,  saw  their  opportunity  in  the  hatred  of  the 
draft  thus  systematically  fomented,  and  did  not  allow  these  incite- 
ments to  resistance  to  lose  any  of  their  force.  There  were  murmur- 
ings  of  the  coming  storm,  but  efforts  to  avert  it  were  frustrated  by 
those  high  in  power.  Mr.  George  Opdyke,  a  Republican,  was  Mayor, 
and  he  foresaw  that  there  would  be  trouble  when  the  drafts  should 
begin.  lie  remonstrated  with  Governor  Seymour  against  the  with- 
drawal of  all  the  militia  from  the  city,  but  the  Governor  blandlj  re- 
plied that  he  had  to  obey  superior  orders,  and  that  the  city  would  be 
safe  enough  under  the  protection  of  its  own  police  force.  The  draft 
was  appointed  for  July  1 1. 1803.  The  enrolling  offices  were  located  at 
two  points:  Third  Avenue,  corner  of  Forty-sixth  Street:  and  No.  1 1 00 
Proadway.  near  Twenty-eighth  Street.  Ere  the  day  arrived  the  news 
of  the  simultaneous  victories  at  Yicksburg  and  Gettysburg,  on  July 
4.  instead  of  discouraging  the  disaffected  (dement,  only  served  to  in- 
flame it  to  a  fiercer  hatred  of  t  In-  war  and  its  cause,  the  emancipation 
of  the  negro,  duly  11  finally  came;  it  fell  on  a  Saturday.  Colonel 
Robert  Nugent,  of  the  Sixty-ninth  Regiment,  an  Irishman  and  a 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


415 


Democrat,  qualified  in  every  respect  to  carry  out  the  measure  in  the 
least  offensive  manner,  had  been  appointed  Provost-Marshal,  i  He 
took  charge  of  the  office  in  Broadway  with  Deputy-Provost-Marshal 
Manniere  to  assist  him;  while  Deputy  Vanderpoel  was  installed  at  the 
enrolling  place  on  Third  Avenue.  Everything  went  quietly  on  this 
Saturday;  although  large  crowds  assembled  in  the  vicinity  of  the  of- 
fices, there  was  a  manifestation  of  good  humor  rather  than  anger. 
The  drafting  wheel  was  set  in  motion,  resembling  those  employed  in 
lotteries  for  the  drawing  of  numbers.  It  was  watched  with  keen  in- 
terest,  by  those  who  could  get  near  enough,  as  a  curious  novelty.  Sun- 
day intervened,  and  now  the  schemers  who  intended  mischief  put  in 
their  fine  work. 

On  Monday,  July  13,  the  drafting  was  resumed  at  the  two  enrolling 
offices.  The  Sunday  papers  (for  these  had  started  upon  their  career) 
informed  the  people  of  the  numbers  who  had  been  drafted  on  the  day 
before.  The  groggeries  in  the  Five  Points  and  along  the  water  front 
were  filled  wyith  their  usual  occupants,  and  the  liquor  and  the  news 
together,  with  a  judicious  word  thrown  in  by  those  who  wished  to 
make  trouble,  perhaps  after  all  to  detach  New  York  from  the  North, — 
all  contributed  to  make  the  populace  ripe  for  action  on  Monday. 
Sixty  policemen  were  placed  at  each  drafting  place,  and  until  ten 
o'clock  there  was  no  trouble.  At  that  hour  Superintendent  of  Police 
Kennedy  while  on  a  tour  of  inspection  in  citizen's  clothes,  was  recog- 
nized by  a  mob  at  Forty-sixth  Street  and  Lexington  Avenue,  contain- 
ing many  criminals  who  had  too  good  cause  to  know  him.  He  was 
beaten  into  insensibility  and  left  to  drown  in  a  puddle  of  water,  when 
rescued  by  a  friend.  Meanwhile  a  crowd  of  roughs  had  been  going  up 
Third  Avenue  from  Cooper  Institute,  to  Forty-sixth  Street  entering 
every  shop,  and  persuading  or  forcing  employees  to  quit  work  and  join 
the  raid  upon  the  enrolling  offices.  Before  they  reached  Forty-sixth 
Street,  the  avenue  was  black  with  people  following  in  their  train. 
The  mob  who  had  just  dealt  with  Kennedy,  excited  by  the  deed  of 
blood,  were  now  ready  for  any  outrages.  Joining  the  crowds  on  Third 
Avenue,  the  assault  on  the  office  began.  A  pistol  shot  was  heard. 
This  was  the  signal  for  attack.  A  volley  of  paving  stones  was  fired 
into  the  office,  knocking  down  the  officials,  upsetting  inkstands, 
smashing  chairs  and  tables.  Thereupon  the  crowd  surged  in,  destroy- 
ing the  drafting  machine,  and  wrecking  everything  in  the  room.  The 
house  was  then  set  on  fire.  Deputy-Provost  V anderpoel  had  been  hit 
with  a  stone,  and  was  carried  out  for  dead.  The  whole  block  from 
Forty -fifth  to  Forty-sixth  Street  was  soon  in  flames.  When  the  fire 
department  hurried  to  the  spot  the  rioters  cut  the  hose  and  forced  the 
men  away  from  the  hydrants.  The  mob  now  entered  upon  a  carnival 
of  violence,  firing  and  robbing  houses,  looting  stores,  defying  the  po- 
lice, whose  numbers  were  too  small  to  control  them.  Superintendent 
Kennedy  being  disabled  the  command  of  the  police  fell  to  President 


416 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK 


Acton  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners,  lie  established  himself  at  the 
headquarters  in  Mulberry  Street,  put  himself  in  telegraphic  communi- 
cation with  all  the  police  stations  in  the  city,  and  ordered  out  all  the 
reserves  to  report  for  instant  service  at  their  stations.  He  soon 
learned  that  a  body  of  five  thousand  rioters  were  marching  down 
Broadway  intending  to  destroy  Police  Headquarters.  Mr.  Acton  gave 
the  command  of  the  two  hundred  policemen  stationed  at  the  building 
in  Sergeant  Daniel  Carpenter,  a  man  of  approved  courage  and  skill. 
Carpenter  resolved  to  meet  the  foe  before  they  reached  their  destina- 
tion. His  plan  of  attack  was  simple  and  effective.  He  marched  his 
men  into  Bleecker  Street  and  so  to  Broadway,  and  while  awaiting  the 
onset  of  the  mob  with  most  of  his  men  there  he  sent  two  detachments 
up  the  two  parallel  streets  east  and  west  of  Broadway,  to  compass  the 
block  and  fall  upon  the  rioters  on  their  flanks  or  rear.  As  he  led  his 
men  to  the  fray  he  called  out:  "Hit  for  their  heads,  men;  hit  quick  and 
hard.  We  don't  want  any  prisoners."  The  few  disciplined  men  thus 
brought  advantageously  to  bear  upon  the  unorganized  mob  soon  car- 
ried the  day.  Broadway  was  cleared  of  rioters,  except  those  who  lay 
upon  the  pavement  with  cracked  skulls.  A  few  trophies  were  carried 
back  to  headquarters,  among  them  banners  rudely  inscribed  with: 
"  Down  with  Lincoln."  "  No  Draft."  Nevertheless  it  would  not  do  to 
risk  defending  the  city  against  the  increasing  lawlessness  with  a  mere 
handful  of  police  however  efficient.  Before  night  Mayor  Opdyke  had 
telegraphed  in  all  directions  for  military  aid.  General  Wool,  com- 
manding the  Department  of  the  East,  ordered  Col.  Brown,  of  the  Fil  l  h 
U.  S.  Artillery,  to  report  with  the  men  under  his  command  garrisoning 
the  harbor  forts  to  General  Sandford  of  the  National  Guard.  After 
some  little  friction  the  former  yielded  to  Sandford's  supremacy,  and 
established  himself  at  Police  Headquarters  to  facilitate  co-operation 
with  Presidenl  Acton.  The  Mayor  also  telegraphed  to  Governor  Sey- 
mour asking  him  to  order  out  the  militia  of  the  neighboring  counties; 
and  to  tin'  Governors  of  neighboring  States  for  all  the  troops  they 
could  send. 

While  the  police  had  been  dealing  with  the  mob  on  Broadway,  a 
futile  attempt  had  been  made  to  (  heck  the  rioting  on  Third  Avenue. 
An  Invalid  Corps  of  fifty  men.  under  Lieutenant  Reed,  had  been  sent 
up  on  a  horsecar  to  Forty-sixth  Street.  The  mob  learned  of  their  ap- 
proach, tore  up  the  track  and  barricaded  the  avenue,  so  t  hat  t  he  party 
got  no  further  than  Forty-third  Street.  Here  the  men  left  the  car, 
and  after  a  vain  attempt  to  reason  with  the  crowd,  the  fatal  mistake 
was  made  by  Lieut.  Reed  of  ordering  fire  with  blank  cartridges.  The 
mob  hurled  themselves  upon  the  handful  of  men  with  derisive  shouts, 
and  wrenching  the  muskets  from  their  hands,  beat  them  with  their 
own  weapons  so  that  many  were  killed  and  every  one  severely 
wounded. 

Matters  had  not  gone  much  better  at  the  enrolling  place  on  Broad- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


417 


way.  A  part  of  the  mob  marched  from  Third  Avenue  and  Forty-sixth 
Street  down  Fifth  Avenue.  On  the  corner  of  Thirty-fifth  Street,  from 
Judge  White's  residence,  a  United  States  flag  was  displayed.  They 
ordered  it  taken  down,  and  not  being  obeyed,  stoned  the  house  and 
were  only  kept  from  sacking  it  because  of  their  hurry  to  get  to  the 
drafting  office.  This  they  raided  like  the  other  and  set  it  on  fire,  so 
that  here  too  the  whole  block,  from  Twenty-eighth  to  Twenty-ninth 
Street  was  soon  in  flames.  The  stores  here  were  stocked  with  jewelry, 
costly  articles  of  furniture,  and  wearing  apparel,  and  many  low 
ruffians  and  hags  were  seen  adorning  themselves  with  the  finest  gar- 
ments and  carrying  off  handsome  furniture  to  their  squalid  hovels. 
Parties  of  rioters,  who  seemed  to  be  innumerable,  also  proceeded  to 
attack  the  various  arsenals.  The  one  in  Seventh  Avenue  and  Thirty- 
fifth  Street  was  defended  by  General  Sandford  himself  and  the  few 


FORT  LAFAYETTE  IN  TIMES  OF  PEACE. 


militiainen  still  available.  He  succeeded  in  dispersing  the  mob  when- 
ever it  sought  to  collect  in  the  vicinity.  The  arsenal  in  Central  Park 
was  occupied  by  the  Tenth  New  York  Regiment  of  Volunteers. 

The  next  day,  July  14th,  the  mob  resumed  its  work  of  firing  and 
looting  houses.  It  seemed  to  be  under  the  direction  of  able  leaders, 
who  planned  out  the  mischief  to  be  done.  The  fury  of  the  rioters  on 
this  day  began  to  direct  itself  against  the  colored  people.  Their  quar- 
ters were  visited  and  their  miserable  hovels  burned  over  their  heads, 
the  poor  creatures  being  stoned  or  thrust  into  the  flames  as  they 
sought  to  escape.  Negroes  were  chased  wherever  seen,  and  hung  on 
the  nearest  lampposts:  if  any  were  seen  escaping  to  roofs  of  houses, 
the  house  was  set  on  fire  and  the  alternative  left  to  them  of  perishing 
in  the  flames  or  of  being  murdered  by  their  persecutors  in  the  street. 


418 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Bu1  the  mos1  dastardly  thing  perpetrated  by  the  mob,-  -showing  that 
men  thus  banded  together  for  lawless  violence  abdicate  all  sense  of 
humanity  and  become  mere  wild  beasts,  mad  with  the  scent  of  blood, 
— was  the  attack  upon  the  Colored  Orphan  Asylum,  on  Fifth  Avenue, 
between  Forty-third  and  Forty-fourth  Streets.  By  the  heroism  and 
coolness  of  the  attendants  the  two  hundred  young  inmates  were  for- 
tunately conducted  to  a  place  of  safety  by  a  rear  door  as  the  raging 
fiends  broke  in  the  front  door.  The  torch  was  applied  in  twenty 
places  at  once,  and  the  building  burned  to  the  ground.  Prom  da\  to 
day  the  mob  became  bolder  in  their  depredations.  They  went  com- 
paratively unresisted  over  the  entire  island.  Downtown  they  wrecked 
the  ground  floor  of  the  Tribune  Building,  and  might  have  utterly 
destroyed  it,  having  already  started  a  Are,  when  the  police  succeeded 
in  driving  t  hem  off.  In  Harlem,  as  well  as  in  the  downtown  residence 
district,  one  house  after  another  was  robbed  and  fired.  The  citizens 
were  panic-striken.  It  was  rumored  that  the  mob  had  seized  the  gas- 
works and  the  reservoirs,  and  were  prepared  to  bring  utter  ruin  upon 
the  city. 

But  now-  the  troops  began  to  arrive  and  some  effective  checks  were 
administered.  Whenever  they  fired  with  blank  cartridges,  or  over 
the  heads  of  the  people,  no  good  results  followed,  but  point  blank  fir- 
ing and  the  fall  of  several  of  the  mob  usually  had  a  sobering  ef- 
fect. The  Secretary  of  War  ordered  all  the  New  York  regiments  to 
repair  to  New  York,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  15th  the  Tenth  and 
Fifty-sixth  had  arrived.  Soon  after  came  the  Seventh,  Eighth. 
Seventy-fourth  and  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-second,  and  the  Twenty- 
sixth  Michigan.  They  had  come  none  too  soon,  for  destruction  raided 
up  to  the  moment  of  their  arrival.  We  mention  only  one  more  inci- 
dent to  illustrate  the  fierce  inhuman  vindictiveness  of  the  mob.  which 
makes  it  so  much  more  perilous  to  encounter  than  a  regular  army  in 
the  field.  On  the  morning  of  Tuesday  a  report  came  to  Police  Head- 
quarters that  a  large  mob  were  making  ready  to  plunder  the  houses 
on  Thirty-fourth  Street,  on  Murray  Hill.  Sergeant  Carpenter  with 
three  hundred  men  was  dispatched  to  the  spot.  He  succeeded  in  driv- 
ing them  off  toward  the  east.  At  Second  Avenue  and  Thirty-second 
Street  they  seemed  to  be  getting  ready  to  rally  again,  when  Colonel 
O'Brien,  of  the  Eleventh  Volunteers,  with  a  party  of  soldiers  and  two 
field-pieces,  proceeded  to  attack  them.  In  response  to  a  volley  of 
paving  stones,  Col.  O'Brien  leveled  the  pieces  and  fired  unhesitatingly 
into  the  crowd,  killing  several  and  dispersing  the  mob  effectually.  A 
little  later  Col.  O'Brien  was  imprudent  enough  to  go  into  the  neighbor- 
hood again  unattended.  While  he  was  in  a  drug  store  a  crowd  collect- 
ed on  the  sidewalk.  Instead  of  trying  to  escape  he  boldly  stepped 
out,  thinking  a  few  words  of  counsel  would  bring  them  to  reason. 
He  had  miscalculated.  There  is  no  generosity  in  a  mad  mob.  Ylv  was 
set  upon  by  a  score  of  brutes  at  once,  felled  to  the  ground,  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


411) 


dragged  through  the  tilth  of  the  streets  with  a  rope  for  hours.  A  re- 
ward of  five  hundred  dollars  was  offered  fur  the  detection  of  the  per- 
petrators of  this  ghoulish  deed,  but  they  were  never  found. 

On  the  fourth  day  the  Governor,  who  had  arrived  in  the  city  issued 
a  proclamation  commanding  the  people  to  abstain  from  violence. 
From  the  steps  of  the  City  Hall  he  addressed  a  crowd  of  the  rioters, 
weakly  informing  them  that  he  had  urged  the  Government  to  suspend 
the  draft.  With  equal  pusillanimity  the  Common  Council  passed  an 
ordinance  appropriating  two  millions  and  a  half  dollars,  or  six  hun- 
dred dollars  per  head,  to  be  paid  for  substitutes  for  men  who  had  been 
drafted  and  did  not  wish  to  serve.  The  Mayor  very  properly  vetoed 
the  measure,  which  Avas  rightly  regarded  by  the  populace  as  a  victory 
for  them,  vindicating  the  riot  and  all  its  horrors  rather  than  condemn- 
ing it.  When  the  results  were  summed  up  it  was  found  that  between 
one  thousand  and  twelve  hundred  persons  had  been  killed,  with  an 
unascertainable  number  of  wounded;  and  that  two  millions  of  dollars' 
worth  of  property  had  been  destroyed.  On  Friday,  July  17,  it  was  an- 
nounced by  Mayor  Opdyke  that  order  once  more  reigned  supreme. 
Yet  it  was  found  expedient  to  keep  the  military  under  arms.  For 
some  days  cavalry  patroled  the  sections  of  the  city  where  the  danger- 
ous elements  resided,  and  at  the  arsenals  and  armories  detachments 
of  the  militia  were  constantly  on  duty.  Very  few  suffered  for  the 
awful  crimes  committed;  some  of  the  ringleaders  were  arrested  and 
tried,  but  where  so  many  acted  in  concert  not  much  could  be  proved 
in  a  court  of  law  against  individuals,  and  no  penalty  at  all  adequate 
was  inflicted  on  any  one.  While  the  final  restoration  of  order  was  of 
course  due  to  the  presence  of  an  overwhelming  force  of  the  military, 
it  speaks  well  for  the  city  officials  and  their  police  force  that  the 
worst  of  the  battle  had  been  well  sustained  by  them  almost  alone. 
General  Brown,  in  relinquishing  the  command  intrusted  to  him,  said 
in  his  report,  that,  having  been  in  constant  co-operation  with  the  Po- 
lice Department,  he  was  prepared  to  declare  that  "  never  in  civil  or 
military  life  had  he  seen  such  untiring  devotion  and  such  efficient 
service." 

The  presidential  election  of  1864  was  another  critical  period  in  the 
history  of  the  war,  and  full  of  threats  against  the  peace  and  safety  of 
New  York  City.  There  were  serious  expectations  of  both  fraud  and 
violence  at  the  polls.  General  Dix,  upon  reliable  information,  warned 
the  officials  that  agents  of  the  Confederacy  in  Canada  were  plotting  to 
colonize  in  the  city,  as  in  other  places,  large  companies  of  refugees,  de- 
serters, and  malcontents,  who  were  to  vote  against  Lincoln  on  election 
day;  and  prepared  even  to  go  to  the  extreme  of  subsequently  "  shoot- 
ing down  peaceable  citizens  and  plundering  private  property";  a 
repetition  thus  of  the  work  of  1863.  Detectives  were  accordingly 
placed  upon  the  watch.  All  arrivals  in  town  were  carefully  scrutin- 
ized, and  made  to  give  an  account  of  themselves.   Rude  confirmation 


420 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  those  rumors  was  not  lacking.  When  the  day  for  the  election  ap- 
proached the  Mayor  received  a  telegram  from  the  Secretary  of  War 
that  a  conspiracy  had  been  discovered  to  fire  the  principal  northern 
cities  on  that  day,  Not  waiting  to  learn  whether  the  Mayor  believed 
him  or  not,  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler  was  sent  from  Portress  Mon- 
roe to  take  command  of  the  troops  in  the  city,  and  seven  thousand 
additional  soldiers  were  sent  with  him  and  quartered  at  Fort  Ilam- 


LINCOLK    S  I  \Tl  K    IN    rXION    SQU  \KK. 


ilton  and  on  Governor's  Island.  On  Election  Day  these  troojts  were 
placed  on  steamers  and  stationed  off  the  Battery  and  other  points 
along  the  North  and  Easl  Kiver  fronts,  ready  to  act  at  a  moment's 
call.  There  was  no  occasion,  however,  to  invoke  their  aid  or  interfer- 
ence. But  a  few  weeks  later,  on  the  nighl  of  Evacuation  Day 
(November         when  the  extra  troops  had  all  been  withdrawn, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


421 


a  number  of  tires  occurred  simultaneously  iu  several  of  the  hotels 
of  the  city,  in  Barnuin's  Museum,  among  some  of  the  shipping 
in  the  harbor,  and  in  a  lumber  yard  on  the  North  River.  A 
party  of  eight  men,  headed  by  one  Robert  Kennedy, — who  was 
afterward  caught  and  hanged,  and  confessed  the  crime, — had  come 
into  the  city  for  the  express  purpose  of  tiring  all  these  buildings, 
hoping  to  intiict  still  greater  damage  during  the  confusion  and 
panic  likely  to  arise.  The  incendiaries  had  followed  a  uniform,  con- 
certed plan.  Carrying  small  traveling  bags  containing  inflammable 
materials,  they  had  engaged  rooms  at  the  various  hotels.  On  retiring 
to  the  rooms  they  tore  up  the  bedding,  saturating  it  with  camphene 
and  turpentine.  Then  lighting  a  slow  match  they  locked  the  door  and 
went  away.  But  their  purpose  was  defeated  in  each  case  before  much 
damage  was  done,  for  as  the  tightly  closed  rooms  filled  with  smoke, 
the  flames  were  extinguished. 

The  month  of  April,  18G5,  was  again  one  of  excitement,  running 
from  the  extreme  of  joy  to  that  of  grief  and  consternation,  for  the 
whole  country  as  well  as  for  New  York.  The  year  from  its  beginning 
had  been  replete  with  glorious  tidings.  One  brilliant  exploit  followed 
another  in  quick  succession:  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea;  the  capture 
of  Columbia  and  Savannah;  Sheridan's  dashing  raid  into  Virginia. 
To  cap  the  climax  came  the  reports  of  the  consummation  of  General 
Grant's  steadily  pursued  operations  against  Richmond.  On  April  3 
arrived  the  news  of  its  fall,  received  in  New  York  with  unbounded  joy, 
and  with  a  touch  of  personal  pride  when  it  was  learned  that  Lieut. 
De  Peyster,  one  of  her  own  sons,  a  scion  of  a  family  prominent  in 
Dutch  Colonial  days,  had  been  the  one  to  place  the  flag  of  the  Union 
upon  the  summit  of  the  Confederate  Capitol.  The  surrender  of  Lee  at 
Appomattox  Court  House  on  April  9  only  added  to  the  previoi  < 
joy  and  gratitude.  And  then  came  the  blow  that  prostrated  in  sudden 
agony  every  loyal  heart  in  the  Union.  The  first  gun  on  Fort  Sumter 
had  been  the  monumental  mistake  of  the  Confederacy.  The  assassi- 
nation of  President  Lincoln  wTas  the  very  insanity  of  folly.  No  enemy 
of  the  South  could  have  dealt  her  a  more  cruel  stab.  To  the  North  it 
was  a  blow  of  affliction  and  bereavement;  to  the  South  it  was  a  blow 
at  life  and  prosperity,  delaying  reconciliations,  keeping  alive  a  fester- 
ing hatred.  At  half-past  seven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  April  15, 
18G5,  the  news  reached  the  people  of  New  York  that  the  President  was 
dead.  Almost  in  a  moment  the  city  was  clothed  in  habiliments  of 
mourning.  No  one  had  either  heart  or  head  for  business,  yet  men 
crowded  the  streets  dowTntown.  All  the  kindly  intentions  to  cherish 
again  feelings  of  brotherliness  toward  the  men  of  the  South  were 
turned  into  bitter  and  furious  anger  and  indignation;  all  those  who 
had  remained  irreconcilable  in  their  feeling  toward  the  rebels  of  the 
South  pointed  in  triumph  to  this  new  evidence  of  her  incorrigible 
barbarity  and  depravity.   Throngs  filled  Wall  Street  and  Broad.  At 


L22 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


noon  Simeon  Draper,  the  Collector  of  the  Port,  came  oul  upon  the 
porch  of  the  Custom  House,  now  the  Sub-Treasury,  with  a  number  of 
noted  men.  and  organized  on  the  spot  a  sort  of  mass  meeting.  The 
people  became  instantly  hushed,  and  listened  in  solemn  silence  to  one 
after  another  eloquent  speaker.  lint  the  appearance  of  no  one  there 
has  more  dramatic  interest  to  us  of  a  later  day  than  that  of  General 
James  A.  Garfield,  who  was  destined  to  meet  with  a  similar  fate  six- 
teen years  afterward.  He  quoted  with  impressive  effect  the  solemn 
words  of  Scripture:  "Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  Eim: 
righteousness  and  judgment  are  the  habitation  of  His  throne."  And 
then  he  struck  the  keynote  of  the  situation  by  adding  among  other 
things:  "  The  spirit  of  rebellion,  goaded  to  its  last  madness,  has  reck- 
lessly done  itself  a  mortal  injury,  striking  down  with  treacherous 
blow  the  kindest,  gentlest,  tenderest  friend  the  people  of  the  South 
could  find  among  the  rulers  of  the  Nation."  So  profound  was  the 
grief  everywhere  fell  that  the  police  ordered  (indeed  the  managers 
themselves  had  already  so  resolved)  every  place  of  amusement  to  be 
closed  until  after  the  funeral.  On  April  24  the  body  of  the  Presi- 
dent arrived  in  New  York  on  its  way  to  its  last  resting-place  in  his  old 
home  at  Springfield,  Illinois.  It  lay  in  state  in  the  rotunda  of  the  City 
Hall,  and  for  a  full  twenty-four  hours  a  stream  of  people  constantly 
passed  by  the  coffin  on  either  side  to  take  a  last  view  of  the  honored 
remains.  On  the  afternoon  of  April  25.  the  body  was  escorted  to  the 
railroad  depol  by  a  civic  and  military  procession  in  which  sixty  thou- 
sand persons  took  part,  and  a  million  of  people  were  estimated  to  have 
lined  the  streets.  On  the  same  afternoon  a  large  gathering  in  Union 
Square  listened  to  a  funeral  oration  by  George  Bancroft,  and  a  eulogy 
in  his  characteristic  manner  by  William  Cullen  Bryant.  And  thus 
ended  the  final  episode  of  the  great  crisis  of  the  Civil  War:  the  last 
victim  of  the  bullet's  flight  had  fallen;  the  hate  of  Avar  had  done  to 
death  the  most  shining  mark  the  last. 

A  word  in  closing  belongs  to  the  men  of  New  York  City  who  laid 
down  their  lives  for  the  cause  in  which  Lincoln  also  died.  The  firsl 
officer  to  fall  was  Colonel  Ellsworth,  commander  of  the  First  New- 
York  Regiment  of  Volunteers.  Upon  the  walls  of  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York  is  a  handsome  tablet  inscribed  with  the  names  of 
the  gallant  youths  who  went  forth  to  die  the  hero's  death.  But 
who  can  enumerate  the  many  who  deserve  mention?  Son.  Ellis 
H.  Roberts  well  summarizes  the  facts  by  saying:  "  The  services  of  the 
officers  and  men  furnished  by  New  York  adorn  many  of  the  chapters 
of  t  he  ( Mvil  War.  If  no  single  person  attained  to  the  first  rank,  a  large 
QUmber  tilled  positions  of  great  importance  with  eminent  credit.  In 
zeal  and  devotion  and  gallantry  New  York  troops  were  not  behind 
their  fellows  in  any  danger  or  trial.  Wherever  the  sacrifices  and 
triumphs  of  the  National  army  or  navy  are  told  or  sung,  their  deeds 
will  be  remembered  and  honored." 


CHAPTER  XV. 


RIDDEN  BY  RING  RULE. 

t 

HE  people  of  New  York  City  were  deeply  interested  in  the 
question  as  to  what  should  bo  done  to  rehabilitate  the 
States  which  had  gone  out  of  the  Union  by  acts  of  secession 
sustained  by  war.  We  cannot  doubt  what  was  the  martyred 
Lincoln's  desire  and  purpose.  We  know  how  General  Grant's  mag- 
nanimity stood  guard  over  baneful  propositions  of  revenge  and 
punishment.  It  was  perhaps  fortunate  for  Lincoln's  fame,  and  for  his 
personal  happiness,  that  the  assassin's  bullet  removed  him  from  the 
scene  of  politics  subsequent  to  the  wrar.  President  Johnson,  in  car- 
rying out  the  policy  of  free  and  gen- 
erous "  Restoration  "  of  the  seceding 
States,  which  was  well  known  to  be 
Lincoln's  own;  in  acting  upon  Grant's 
simple  but  immensely  significant 
motto  "  Let  us  have  peace," — encoun- 
tered the  most  bitter  hostility.  Meas- 
ures which  he  considered  harsh,  tend- 
ing needlessly  to  exasperate  instead  of 
conciliating  the  Southern  people,  were 
one  by  one  vetoed  by  Mr.  -Johnson;  till 
in  their  rage  Congress  actually 
brought  in  resolutions  of  impeachment 
against  the  President.  In  these  fa- 
mous proceedings,  a  son  of  New  York, 
William  M.  Evarts,  bore  a  conspicuous 
part,  of  which  the  city  was  justly 
proud,  in  a  defense  of  the  impeached 
President,  which  resulted  in  his  acquittal  by  the  court  that  tried 
him.  New  York  took  special  pleasure  in  this  circumstance,  be- 
cause there  was  a  prevalent  sentiment  here  sustaining  the  Presi- 
dent in  his  course  in  behalf  of  the  South.  On  Washington's 
birthday,  1866,  a  mass-meeting  was  called  at  Cooper  Union,  to  give 
public  expression  to  the  feelings  of  the  citizens  regarding  the  contro- 
versy between  Johnson  and  Congress.  An  hour  and  a  half  before  the 
doors  were  opened  ,111  immense  concourse  filled  the  wide  square  in 
front  of  the  Institute.    In  less  than  fifteen  minutes  after  they  were 


424 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


opened  not  a  seat  was  left  vacant,  and  every  inch  of  standing  room 
in  the  aisles  or  corridors  w  as  taken  up.  Even  the  platform  was  tilled 
with  a  solid  mass  of  people.  The  stage  was  decorated  with  Hags  and 
bunting,  and  upon  the  rear  wall  hung  portraits  of  Grant  and  Sherman 
supporting  that  of  President  Johnson  in  the  center.  At  the  hour  for 
the  commencement  of  the  exercises,  ex-Mayor  Opdyke  stepped  for- 
ward, calling  the  meeting  to  order,  and  nominating  as  chairman  the 
Hon.  F.  Bayard  Cutting.  The  principal  speaker  of  the  evening  was 
Secretary  of  State  and  ex-Governor  of  New  York.  William  H.  Sew 
ard.  There  was  a  great  eagerness  to  see  and  hear  the  man  who  had 
so  narrowly  escaped  the  fate  of  Lincoln.  It  was  truly  judged  that  one 
who  was  held  to  be  so  like  him  as  an  object  of  deadly  hatred  by  the 
enemies  of  the  Union,  must  also  worthily  and  closely  represent  what 
would  have  been  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  position  on  the  burning  questions 
of  the  day.  Among  other  things  the  Secretary  said:  "There  never 
was  and  never  can  be  any  successful  process  for  the  restoration  of 
Union  and  harmony  among  the  States,  except  the  one  with  which  the 
President  has  avowed  himself  satisfied.  .  .  .  The  States  sooner 
or  later  must  be  organized  by  loyal  men  in  accordance  with  the 
change  in  our  fundamental  law  and  .  .  .  being  so  organized  they 
should  conic  by  loyal  representatives  and  resume  the  places  in  the 
family  circle  which,  in  a  tit  of  caprice  and  passion.  They  rebelliously 
vacated.  All  the  rebel  States  except  Texas  have  done  jnst  that  thing, 
and  Texas  is  doing  the  same  thing  jnst  now  as  fast  as  possible. 
.  Men  whose  loyalty  may  be  tried  by  any  constitutional  or  legislative 
test,  which  will  apply  even  to  representatives  of  the  States  which  have 
been  loyal  throughout,  are  now  standing  at  the  doors  of  Congress. 
.  .  These  representatives,  after  a  lapse  of  three  months,  yet  remain 
waiting  outside  the  chamber,  while  Congress  passes  law  alter  law, 
imposes  burden  after  burden,  and  duty  after  duty  upon  The  States 
which  thus,  against  their  earnestly  expressed  desire,  are  left  without 
representation.'"  .Mr.  Seward  then  sketched  the  plan  that  the  poli- 
ticians in  Congress  seemed  desirous  of  forcing  upon  the  President: 
''That  Congress,  with  the  President  concurring,  should  create  what 
are  called  Territorial  Governments  in  the  eleven  States  which  were 
once  in  rebellion,  and  that  the  President  should  administer  the  Gov- 
ernment there  for  an  indefinite  period  by  military  force.  .  .  . 
This  proceeding  was  rejected  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  it  is  rejected  by  the 
President."  Now  it  was  to  give  evidence  of  the  general  commenda- 
tion of  President  Johnson  in  the  positions  thus  clearly  explained,  on 
the  part  of  New  York's  citizens,  that  the  meeting  was  called.  As  the 
chairman  of  the  evening  said:  "  In  the  present  unhappy  differences 
between  Congress  and  the  President,  the  latter,  in  obedience  to  his 
sense  of  constitutional  duty,  declines  the  vast  patronage  and  power, 
civil  and  military,  which  the  former  would  give  him.  We  honor  him 
for  this.    .    .    .    We  express  to  Andrew  Johnson  our  confidence  in 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


425 


his  integrity."  But  apart  from  what  was  thus  said  in  their  behalf, 
and  the  resolutions  heartily  indorsing  the  President,  adopted  with 
enthusiasm  and  unanimity, — we  look  especially  to  the  remarkable 
response  to  the  call  for  the  meeting.  We  have  already  described  the 
immense  crowds  in  the  auditory.  After  the  hall  had  been  filled  to  its 
utmost  capacity,  a  competent  police  force  was  stationed  at  the  doors 
to  prevent  dangerous  crowding  upon  the  stairways.  Thousands  were 
thus  turned  away  at  the  doors.  But  they  lingered  in  the  square  out- 
side. The  Committee  of  Arrangements  had  not  had  the  slightest  idea 
of  so  general  a  response  to  the  call  for  the  njeeting,  else  stands  and 
speakers  might  have  been  provided.  As  it  was.  the  temper  of  the 
people  exhibited  itself  all  the  more  strikingly.  Patriotic  men  re- 
sponded to  the  feeling  of  the  hour  indicated  by  the  immense  throngs, 
and  here  and  there  ascended  elevations  most  convenient  to  address 
the  crowds,  speaking  warm  and  strong  words  for  the  President. 
The  speakers  were  altogether  unknown  to  fame,  that  fact  alone  show- 
ing how  near  to  the  hearts  of  the  loyal  masses  of  the  people  of  the  city 
lay  the  welfare  of  the  country,  in  the  particular  method  of  promoting 
it  which  President  Johnson  proposed  to  pursue  in  opposition  to  Con- 
gress. When  the  speaking  was  over,  cheer  after  cheer  arose  from  the 
multitudes  for  the  President,  the  Union,  the  veto  message,  the  Stars 
and  Stripes.  A  large  number  of  ladies  was  among  the  crowds,  who, 
when  disappointed  in  gaining  entrance  to  Cooper  Institute  Hall,  lin- 
gered outside,  contributing  with  all  their  might  to  the  fervor  and  en- 
thusiasm of  the  occasion.  In  short,  this  mass-meeting  of  New  York 
citizens,  of  all  classes  and  conditions  and  ages  and  sexes,  was  the 
city's  commentary  upon  the  issues  left  to  be  settled  by  the  war.  It 
had  accepted  the  war  and  sustained  the  war  with  men  and  treasure 
abundant.  It  now  accepted  peace,  as  Lincoln  and  Grant  had  accept' d 
it,  and  therefore  it  stood  with  Johnson  in  the  desire  that  differences 
might  be  healed,  the  crime  or  folly  of  secession  be  forgiven,  and  the 
Union  be  again  as  it  was.  By  January  30,  1871,  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  were  once  more  represented  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  as 
they  had  been  in  1860. 

Scarce  had  the  din  and  smoke  of  war  passed  away,  when  certain 
stanch  and  indomitable  citizens  of  New  York  addressed  themselves 
once  more  to  a  herculean  task,  and  achieved  a  triumph  not  again 
doomed  to  disappointment.  We  have  followed  the  fitful  fortunes  of 
the  Atlantic  Cable  in  a  previous  chapter.  We  cannot  forbear  to  em- 
phasize how  entirely  the  conception  of  that  scheme  and  its  initiatory 
movements  belong  to  the  credit  of  our  city.  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field  and 
Mr.  Peter  Cooper  have  already  been  mentioned.  With  these  gentle- 
men were  associated,  as  early  as  1854,  Messrs.  Moses  Taylor,  Marshall 
O.  Roberts,  and  Chandler  White.  Some  of  these  men  were  natives  of 
New  York,  all  of  them  were  prominent  as  citizens.  One  historian 
properly  makes  a  note  of  the  fact  that  "  at  six  o'clock  on  the  morning 


426 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  the  8th  of  May,  1854.  these  five  New  York  gentlemen  met  at  the 
house  of  Mr.  Field's  brother,  David  Dudley  Field,  in  Gra  mercy  Park, 
and  in  half  an  hour  organized  a  company  and  subscribed  a  million 
and  a  half  of  dollars."  It  was  an  early  hour,  indeed.  no1  usually  af- 
fected by  the  New  York  merchants  of  i  his  decade;  bu1  i  hese  men  had 
need  of  beinii  wide  awake  for  the  enterprise  they  had  in  view.  And 
they  were,  as  was  proved  by  more  things  than  this  unheard-of  hour 
for  a  business  meeting.  Ii  would  seem  as  if  their  failure  after  thai 
brief  taste  of  success  in  L858,  were  enough  to  discourage  them  perma- 
nently; or  at  least  that  it  would  have  forever  closed  the  pockets  of  in- 
vestors against  their  persuasions.  But  their  own  courage  and  con- 
victions of  ultimate  success  were  so  abounding,  that  they  infected 
others  with  t  he  contagion  of  t  heir  hope.  It  had  been  charged  thai  I  he 
messages  purporting  to  have  been  exchanged  between  England  and 
the  United  States  were  not  bona  fide.  The  message  from  the  Queen 
did  not  follow  the  promise  of  its  coming  till  after  a  lapse  of  time  suf- 
ficient for  the  mail  to  bring  it:  and  that  looked  suspicious.  Hut  after 
a  few  weeks,  continuation  of  the  genuineness 


of  the  cable's  work  came  from  London.  The 
Times  of  Augusl  25,  L858,  contained  the  news 
of  the  death  of  a  prominent  telegraph  opera- 
tor in  this  country  which  occurred  on  August 
23.  This  somewhat  abated  the  disgust  and 
aversion  which  people  had  begun  to  feel  to- 
ward the  enterprise.   But  Civil  W  ar  now  also 


came  in  to  set  up  its  harrier  against  the  un-      section  of  \n. antic 
dertaking.   Yet  these  men  kept  on  with  their  cable. 
purpose,  taking  advantage  of  improvements 

in  machinery,  or  of  new  devices  thai  suggested  themselves  to  a 
studious  and  persistent  ingenuity  in  the  construction  of  the  materials 
for  the  cable  and  in  the  generation  and  transmission  of  the  electric 
current.  An  unexpected  ally  appeared  in  the  shape  of  that  "eighth 
wonder."  t  he  monster  ship  <  ireat  Eastern,  which,  of  little  use  for  nny- 
t  hing  else,  was  supremely  adapted  for  storing  and  paying  out  the  elec- 
tric cable.  She  was  therefore  engaged  by  the  company,  and  specially 
prepared  for  this  peculiar  service.  'I 'he  second  cable  having  been  fin- 
ished, it  was  placed  on  board  the  (Ireat  Eastern,  and  on  July  -•*>.  L865, 
the  expedition  started,  as  in  former  attempts,  from  Valentin  Hay.  on 
the  Island  of  that  name,  (dose  to  the  southwestern  coast  of  Ireland. 
Tin-  huge  vessel,  moving  majestically  slow,  was  dis1  urbed  but  little  in 
her  mot  ion.  as  her  ext  reine  lengt  h  enabled  her  to  rest  upon  t  wo  waves 
at  once.  Ingenious  machinery  had  been  de\  Lsed  to  render  t  he  paying 

out  of  the  cable  subject  as  little  as  possible  to  the  accidents  of  wind 
and  sea.  Bui  nevertheless  disappointmenl  was  once  more  in  store  for 
Ihe  already  greatly  tried  promoters  of  the  splendid  scheme.  In  spite 
of  every  precaution  some  hitch  occurred  w  hen  twelve  hundred  miles 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


127 


bad  been  accomplished.  The  cable  suddenly  snapped  asunder,  the  end 
dropped  to  the  bottom  of  The  sea.  and  for  a  not  1km-  year  I  hose  who  de- 
rided the  enterprise  had  the  laugh  to  themselves.  Even  yet.  how- 
ever, the  men  charged  with  its  accomplishment  refused  to  believe  suc- 
cess impossible;  three  millions  of  dollars  were  soon  raised  again,  a 
new  cable  was  made  with  greater  care  than  ever,  every  improvement 
that  suggested  itself  to  increase  its  strength  or  elasticity  or  durabil- 
ity being  adopted.  The  Great  Eastern  was  again  put  into  requisition. 
Thinking  that  the  transition  from  a  dry  abode  on  board  ship  to  a 
watery  bath  might  have  something  to  do  wittijendering  i  In-  cable  less 
able  to  endure  the  strain,  or  that  the  coil  would  be  less  liable  to  get 
tangled  if  kept  under  water,  three  immense  iron  tanks  were  built  in 
the  Great  Eastern's  hold,  which,  with  the  water  in  them,  weighed  a 


ARRIVAL  OF  THE  GREAT   EASTERN  AT  HEART'S  CONTENT. 


thousand  tons  apiece.  The  cable  itself,  two  thousand  and  four  hun- 
dred miles  long  (beside  the  seven  hundred  and  forty-eight  miles  of 
the  previous  cable  left  aboard  the  ship),  weighed  four  thousand  tons. 
The  start  was  made  on  July  13, 1866,  from  the  same  place  on  the  Irish 
coast,- Valentin  Bay.  The  shore  end  of  the  cable  was  four  times  the 
weight  per  mile  of  the  other  portion,  so  as  to  fortify  it  against  the 
greater  wear  and  tear  incident  to  the  shallower  water  and  the  break- 
ers on  the  beach.  This  was  carried  and  laid  by  a  smaller  vessel  and  its 
end  spliced  to  that  on  board  the  Great  Eastern.  Her  objective  point 
on  the  American  coast  was  not  Placentia  Bay,  as  in  the  expedi- 
tions of  1857  and  1858.  but  the  little  harbor  of  Heart's  Content 
in  Trinity  Bay,  Newfoundland.  This  obviated  the  necessity  of 
going  around  the  extremity  of  the  island  at  Cape  Race,  and  pro- 
vided a  more  direct  line  of  connection  with  Valentin.  Heart's 
Content  was  a  little  fishing  hamlet,  and  Trinity  Bay  safe  and 


42S 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


capacious.  Slowly  did  the  great  steamship  proceed  toward  this 
then  obscure  haven  with  its  precious  burden.  Mr.  Cyrus  \Y.  Field  was 
himself  aboard,  and  a  telegraphic  station  was  erected  so  that  constant 
communication  could  be  kept  up  with  the  outside  world,  as  the  work 
watched  with  such  intense  interest  progressed.  Before  the  final  suc- 
cess now  so  near,  however,  he  and  those  sharing  in  the  expedition 
were  doomed  to  pass  through  some  more  moments  of  anxiety,  threat- 
ening the  oft-repeated  issue  of  failure.  On  the  night  of  July  18,  with 
a  thick  rain  falling,  making  the  darkness  more  intense,  and  a  rising 
wind  whistling  dismally  through  the  rigging,  of  a  sudden  something 
went  wrong  in  the  aft  tank;  two  or  three  coils  of  the  cable  stuck  to- 
gether, and  rose  from  the  bottom  in  their  ascent  to  the  paying-out 
machinery.  A  hopeless  tangle  resulted,  necessitating  the  stopping 
of  the  ship  by  a  quick  and  full  speed  reversion  of  the  engines,  and 
orders  were  already  given  to  be  ready  to  cast  out  a  supporting  buoy 
in  apprehension  of  the  cable's  snapping.  But  matters  did  not  go  to 
this  extremity.  By  patient  labor  the  snarl  was  unwound  and  the 
cable  successfully  paid  out  to  the  end  of  the  journey.  Heart's  Con- 
tent was  reached  at  nine  o'clock  on  Friday  morning.  July  27.  The 
distance  covered  was  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-nine  miles,  and  the 
length  of  cable  laid  eighteen  hundred  and  four  miles.  Telegraphic 
communication  having  been  kept  up  at  every  stage  of  the  journey,  t  he 
test  was  continued  after  the  connection  on  laud  had  been  made,  and 
proved  to  be  entirely  satisfactory.  With  a  sense  of  joy  and  gratitude 
that  may  easily  be  imagined  Mr.  Field  sent  to  his  friends  in  New  York 
the  following  dispatch:  "  Heart's  Content.  July  27.  We  arrived  here 
at  nine  o'clock  this  morning.  All  well.  Thank  God  the  cable  is  laid, 
and  is  in  perfect  working  order."  To  make  the  connection  doubly 
sure,  and  less  dependent  upon  any  disasters  that  might  happen  to  a 
single  cable,  the  Great  Eastern  immediately  retraced  her  course  with 
the  seven  hundred  and  more  miles  of  the  cable  of  1865,  in  order  to 
make  the  attempt  to  recover  the  lost  end  and  complete  the  circuit  on 
a  second  line  of  wire.  In  1 865  she  had  caught  t  he  cable  t  hree  times  in 
her  grapnels,  but  it  had  unhappily  slipped  from  them.  A  fourth  time 
she  had  secured  it  when  the  grapnel  fouled  with  its  ow  n  chain,  and 
the  cable  was  lost  again.  But  these  experiments  had  proved  that  the 
cable  could  be  picked  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  and  that  suc- 
cess depended  only  on  some  improvement  in  the  methods  or  instru- 
ments employed.  Hence  the  attempt  was  now  made  again,  but  not  till 
after  a  cruise  of  two  months  was  the  submerged  cable  located.  It 
was  now  caught  and  held  with  sullicient  force  to  be  brought  up  from 
its  bed  under  I  wo  miles  of  w  ater,  and  spliced  to  the  cable  on  board. 
The  trip  to  Heart's  Content  was  successfully  accomplished,  and  thus 
a  double  line  of  telegraphic  communication  connected  the  two  hemi- 
spheres. This  double  connection,  secured  or  suggested  partly  by  acci- 
dent, was  made  the  regular  practice  in  subsequent  undertakings. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


429 


These  followed  at  intervals  of  a  few  years.  In  1875  the  "  Direct  Cable 
Company  "  laid  a  cable  between  Ballinskelliugs  Bay,  a  feAv  miles 
south  of  Valentia,  and  Rye,  New  Hampshire.  In  1884  the  Commer- 
cial Company  (Mackay-Bennett)  laid  a  duplicate  cable,  connecting 
Havre,  France,  directly  with  New  York  City.  Another  cable,  across 
Channel  to  Waterville,  south  of  Valentia,  connected  Havre  with  the 
original  lines.  In  later  years  progress  in  electrical  science  has  made 
it  possible  to  detect  the  exact  point  in  the  cable  where  a  break  occurs, 

so  that  steamers 
can  be  sent  direct- 
ly to  the  spot  to 
repair  it. 

Telegraphic 
communica- 
tion with  Europe 
was  now  at  last 
an  accomplished 
fact,  not  again  to 
b  e  interrupted. 
The  tantalizingly 
brief  success  of 
the  project  in  1858 
had  excited  the 
people  of  the 
whole  country  to 
the  greatest  en- 
thusiasm. There 
was  cause  now  f: 
beyond  the  former 
occasion  for  the 
Nation  and  its 
metropolis  to  con- 
gratulate t  h  e  ni- 
selves  upon  the 
final  establishment  of  this  miracle  of  communication.  In  Novem- 
ber, 186G,  a  banquet  was  tendered  Mr.  Field  and  his  fellow  pro- 
jectors at  the  Metropolitan  Hotel  by  the  New  York  Chamber 
of  Commerce.  Congress  at  its  session  in  December  voted  him  a 
gold  medal  with  the  thanks  of  the  Nation,  and  European  governments 
deeply  felt  the  regret  that  they  could  not  ennoble  the  plain  citizen  of 
the  great  Republic.  America  had  now  on  three  different  occasions 
startled  the  world  by  the  inventions  of  her  sons.  Nay,  our  good  city  of 
New  York  is  entitled  to  claim  all  of  these  three — the  steamboat,  the 
telegraph,  and  the  ocean  cable, — as  originated  by  men  who  thought 
and  labored  and  succeeded  here,  under  the  influence  of  that  spirit  of 
enterprise  ever  encouraged  where  commerce  wins  her  greatest  tri- 


BROADWAY  ABOVE  THE  POSTOFFICE. 


430 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


umphs.  The  President  aud  the  Queen  again  exchanged  messages  of 
congratulation,  breathing  the  hope  of  continued  peace.  Bnt  perhaps 
the  most  striking  evidence  of  the  rapidity  of  communication  made 
possible  by  the  cable  was  that  furnished  by  a  congratulatory  dispatch 
received  by  Mr.  Field  on  Monday,  July  :;<».  L'866,  from  M.  de  Lesseps, 
then  busy  with  the  great  project  of  the  Suez  Canal.  It  was  dated  that 
same  day,  ;it  Alexandria,  Egypt,  at  hall-past  one  in  the  afternoon:  it 
reached  Heart's  Content  three  hours  earlier  by  the  clocks  there,  or  at 
half-past  ten  A.M.!  Thus  it  was  vividly  realized  that  the  telegraph 
was  swifter  than  the  sun.  A  laudable  desire  to  keep  the  Sabbath  was 
frustrated  by  this  circumstance.  It  had  been  i  he  intention  to  close  the 
cable  for  business  on  Sunday:  but  Sunday  was  not  simultaneous  over 
all  the  world.  W  hen  it  was  Sunday  in  New  York  it  was  already  Mon- 
day in  Calcutta,  or  still  Saturday  in  Japan:  hence  the  observance  of 
Sunday  here  would  keep  business  dependent  upon  the  telegraph  at 
a  standstill  on  Monday  to  the  East  of  us  and  on  Saturday  to  the  West 
of  us.  thus  necessitating  an  observance  and  consequent  interference 
with  business  of. three  days  instead  of  one.  Hence  the  plan  had  to  be 
abandoned.  At  first  the  charges  for  telegrams  were  enormous:  $100 
for  twenty  words  or  less.  In  L867  t  he  price  had  been  reduced  one-half; 
in  July,  1871,  it  had  fallen  to  $10  for  ten  words  or  less,  and  in  .May. 
L875,  to  fifty  cents  per  word.  It  is  now  twenty-five  cents  per  word, 
counting  everything,  including  address  and  signature,  whence  we 
have  those  curious  combinations  of  firm  names  into  one  word  of  less 
than  ten  letters  in  order  to  cut  down  the  expense.  But  comparison 
with  what  cabling  cost  those  w  ho  first  enjoyed  the  commercial  ad- 
vantages of  it  makes  one  feel  that  the  present  rates  are  ridiculously 
cheap.  The  first  news  message  of  any  importance  transmitted  was 
unfortunately  something  quite  out  of  harmony  with  the  new  achieve 
ment  as  a  triumph  of  peace:  namely,  the  speech  of  the  King  of  Prussia 
just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  between  that  country  and 
Austria,   Its  transmission  cost  $3,000. 

It  was  of  course  inevitable,  in  the  progress  of  the  establishment  of 
rapid  communication  between  every  part  of  the  world,  that  conquest 
should  be  made  of  that  vast  distance  separating  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Coasts  of  the  Tinted  States.  It  would  never  do  in  this  age  of 
the  world  to  keep  on  going  around  Cape  Horn  to  get  from  New  York 
to  San  Francisco,  or  even  to  break  t  he  journey  into  half  by  way  of  t  he 
Isthmus  of  Panama.  There  must  be  a  transcontinental  railroad.  The 
length  of  track  was  indeed  enough  in  itself  to  appall  the  boldest.  As 
finally  accomplished  between  New  York  and  San  Francisco,  it  meas- 
ures .'$..'i°>7  miles,  via  Chicago  and  Omaha  and  Ogden  and  Sacra- 
mento. But  even  the  enormous  distance  was  well  matched  as  an  ap- 
palling difficulty  by  the  mountain  ranges  to  be  overcome  in  the  far 
Wesf  and  near  California.  Nevertheless,  as  early  as  is.")!),  engineers 
had  studied  and  solved  the  problem  with  such  effect  that  a  bill  was 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


431 


prepared  and  passed  by  Congress  authorizing  the  gigantic  enter 
prise.  The  pian  comprised  three  great  lines,  a  northern,  a  central,  and 
a  southern,  subsequently  carried  out.  The  first  blow  of  the  pickax 
was  struck  on  December  2,  and  the  first  shovelful  of  dirt  dislodged 
on  December  3,  1863,  both  by  distinguished  hands,  at  Omaha,  Ne- 
braska. Added  to  all  the  engineering  difficulties  were  those  of  con- 
struction itself,  as  the  Indians  showed  the  fiercest  hostility,  and 
several  battalions  of  United  States  troops  had  their  hands  full  in 
keeping  the  braves  from  killing  the  operatives  and  destroying  the 
material  for  laying  the  road.  Work  was  carried  on  in  two  sections, 
east  and  west,  approaching  each  other,  and  on  May  10,  1869,  opera- 
tions were  completed  and  the  long  line  made  one  at  Promontory 
Point,  Utah.  The  laying  of  the  last  rail  and  the  driving  of  the  last 
spike  were  naturally  made  the  occasion  of  elaborate  ceremonies.  Ari- 
zona presented  a  spike  composed  of  iron,  silver,  and  gold  to  occupy 
this  place  of  honor  in  the  great  construction.  Two  engines  stood  face 
to  face  at  the  two  extremities  of  the  road  as  thus  far  carried.  Every 
stroke  of  the  sledge  upon  the  spike  was  telegraphed  all  over  the 
Union,  and  men  breathlessly  awaited  the  signal  that  the  work  was 
done.  When  the  news  reached  New  York,  the  Mayor  ordered  one  hun- 
dred guns  to  be  fired,  and  sent  across  the  intervening  three  thousand 
miles,  to  the  Mayor  of  San  Francisco,  a  dispatch  of  congratulation  in 
which  he  said:  "  Our  flags  are  now  flying,  our  cannon  are  now  boom- 
ing, and  in  old  Trinity  a  Te  Deum  imparts  thankful  harmonies  to  the 
busy  hum  about  her  church  walls."  A  great  congregation  had  gath- 
ered in  the  church,  special  prayers  were  read,  besides  the  regular 
service,  after  the  singing  of  the  Te  Deum  the  organ  pealed  forth 
strains  of  triumph,  and  as  the  audience  was  leaving  the  church  the 
chimes  took  up  the  refrain  with  the  "  Ascension  Carol,"  the  National 
airs,  and  the  Old  Hundred.  The  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce 
sent  a  message  of  congratulation  to  the  Chamber  of  San  Francisco, 
which  rightly  expressed  the  significance  of  the  event,  as  one  that 
wTould  "  develop  the  resources,  extend  the  commerce,  increase  the 
power,  exalt  the  dignity,  and  perpetuate  the  unity  of  our  Republic." 
And  looking  to  wider  results,  beyond  the  mere  selfish  consideration 
of  National  benefit,  these  enlightened  merchants  of  the  metropolis  of 
the  Republic  also  saw  in  the  enterprise  just  finished  something  that 
"  in  its  broader  relations,  as  the  segment  of  a  world-embracing  circle, 
directly  connecting  the  nations  of  Europe  with  those  of  Asia,  would 
materially  facilitate  the  enlightened  and  advancing  civilization  of 
our  age." 

If  the  visits  of  princes  are  worthy  of  record  in  the  annals  of  a  repub- 
lican metropolis,  the  period  now  under  discussion  may  be  noted  as 
having  seen  two  of  these  representatives  of  European  royalties.  As 
facilitating  an  exchange  of  courtesies  between  nations,  as  indicative 
of  the  desire  of  these  countries  or  their  monarchs  to  cultivate  friend- 


4132  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

ship  and  promote  relations  of  mutual  profit  -with  our  land,  these  visits 
arc  of  course  of  great  importance.  Evidently  England  and  Russia 
must  have  placed  a  value  upon  such  relations  with  the  United  States. 
In  1800  Victoria  had  sent  her  eldest  son  to  see  the  Republic,  and  in 
1st'.:*  she  sent  Arthur,  later  Duke  of  Connaught,  her  youngest.  His 
reception  was  not  as  brilliant  as  that  accorded  to  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
but  it  was  made  clear  that  New  York  appreciated  the  friendliness  of 
the  visit,  so  important  a  circumstance  after  the  agitations  of  war. 
and  the  misunderstandings  between  the  two  countries  that  had  so 
often  led  them  to  the  very  verge  of  conflict.  Even  now  there  was  left 
pending  the  painful  question  of  reparation  for  the  unfriendly  action 
of  England  in  regard  to  the  Alabama  and  other  Southern  cruisers 
fitted  out  in  her  ports.  The  sending  of  a  member  of  her  own  family 
to  the  United  States  was  therefore  regarded  as  the  harbinger  or  token 
of  a  reconciling  spirit  on  the  part  of  the  Queen,  whatever  the  attitude 

of  her  ministers  might  be.  The 
other  royal  visitor  was  a  son  of 
the  Russian  autocrat,  the  Grand 
Duke  Alexis.  In  1867  the  United 
States  had  bought  Alaska  from 
Russia  for  seven  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  the  relations  then  were 
and  since  have  ever  been  of  the 
most  friendly  character,  an 
anomalous  condition  of  affairs, 
as  between  the  most  despotic  and 
the  freest  states  of  Christendom, 
fully  as  much  so  as  that  between 
Russia  and  the  French  Republic, 
to  be  explained  only  as  the 
result  of  the  consummate  diplomatic  skill  of  Russian  statesmen. 
Alexis  possessed  personal  qualities  of  an  attractive  nature,  and 
for  these  as  well  as  for  the  country  he  represented  he  was  feted 
with  great  eclat.  He  came  to  New  York  in  November.  1871.  On  two 
successive  nights  balls  were  given  in  his  honor  at  the  Brooklyn  Navy 
Yard  and  in  the  New  York  Academy  of  .Music.  He  was  entertained 
at  the  Brevoort  House,  at  Eighth  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue,  a  grand 
review  of  troops  was  held  in  Tompkins  Square,  and  a  painting  of  Far- 
ragul  at  Mobile  was  presented  to  him  at  the  Academy  of  Design. 

New  York  knew  what  it  was  to  be  desolated  by  a  great  lire,  al- 
though more  than  a  generation  had  passed  since  the  "  great  tire  "  of 
L835,  and  not  many  of  the  younger  business  men  of  the  town  could 
even  recollect  that  of  1S4.*>.  These  disasters  had  entailed  frightful 
losses,  running  up  into  the  tens  of  millions  of  dollars.  In  1ST1  a 
Western  city,  that  had  hardly  an  existence  in  1845,  and  was  hut  a 
hamlet,  or  a  military  outpost  in  1SM.~>.  was  swept  by  a  fire  which  laid 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


i:;:; 


in  ashes  five  square  miles  of  her  choicest  portion,  and  produced  a  loss 
in  money  valuation  of  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars;  by  i  hat  alone 
showing  to  what  magnificent  proportions  she  must  have  arrived  in 
so  short  a  period.  On  Sunday  and  .Monday.  <  Jctobor  S  and  1),  1871,  this 
awful  disaster  visited  Chicago,  Illinois.  The  enormity  of  it  cast  a 
hush  over  life  and  activity  in  distant  New  York.  On  Monday  busi- 
ness was  almost  at  a  standstill.  But  from  this  sympathetic  paralysis 
the  people  woke  to  the  most  splendid  munificence  in  the  contribution 
of  aid.  Public  meetings  were  held,  at  which  appeals  were  presented 
for  the  relief  of  the  distressed  Western  city,  and  inside  of  two  weeks 
about  three  millions  of  dollars  in  money  or  articles  of  food  and  cloth- 
ing were  raised  and  forwarded  to  Chicago.  Some  Xew  York  men 
whose  reputations  had  been  blackened  by  the  financial  transactions 
to  be  described  further  on,  redeemed  themselves  somewhat  by  the 
energy  and  generosity  wherewith  they  hastened  to  supply  the  wants 
of  the  hundred  thousand  people  reduced  to  beggary  and  threatened 
with  starvation. 

New  York  City  had  a  special  interest  in  the  Presidential  campaign 
of  1872,  because  one  of  her  own  denizens  long  identified  with  her  best 
life,  was  the  "  standard  bearer  "  of  one  of  the  parties  as  candidate  for 
the  occupancy  of  the  Executive  Chair.  We  have  met  Horace  Greeley 
in  the  early  days  of  newspaper  enterprise,  when  he  printed  the  "  pen- 
ny paper  "  for  the  young  medical  student  who  first  hit  upon  the  idea 
of  a  cheap  journal  and  its  sale  by  newsboys.  Some  years  later  the 
Tribune  began  its  career,  and  Greeley  and  it  together  had  risen  to 
prominence  and  reputation  throughout  the  Eepublic.  Devotedly 
loyal  to  the  Union,  Greeley  had  always  been  independent  and  free  in 
his  criticisms  of  his  own  party-leaders.  He  had  not  hesitated  to  poin  : 
out  what  he  deemed  faulty  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  during  the  war. 
At  its  close  he  had  dismissed  from  his  own  heart  and  from  the  pages 
of  his  journal  all  sentiments  of  rancor  against  the  South;  and  he  had 
given  practical  evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  his  feelings  by  boldly  com- 
ing forward  as  bondsman  when  Jefferson  Davis  was  indicted  for  trea- 
son, and  no  one  else  would  go  bail  for  him.  Grant  as  President  had 
not  by  any  means  come  up  to  the  magnitude  of  Grant  the  soldier  and 
general.  Much  was  done  during  his  first  term  for  which  the  men  he 
trusted  too  much  were  really  responsible,  but  which  gave  occasion 
to  serious  criticisms  of  the  President  himself.  Abuses  there  had  been, 
and  Greeley's  paper  exposed  them  in  no  gentle  manner,  rendered 
more  pointed  by  the  fact  that  the  editor  had  no  very  great  notion  of 
the  aptitude  of  military  men  for  the  presidential  position.  There 
had  been  enough  in  these  exposures  to  arouse  a  good  deal  of  feeling 
against  the  popular  idol  of  four  years  before;  and  the  opposing  party 
imagined  that  by  a  fusion  with  disaffected  men  of  the  President's  own 
party,  they  might  carry  the  day  against  Grant,  if  nominated  for  a 
second  term,  as  he  was  sure  to  be.   To  secure  the  adherence  of  these 


i:;4 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


malcontents  the  Democrats  put  (Ireeley  at  the  head  of  their  ticket, 
and  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  a  curious  and  energetic 
campaign  was  carried  on  with  Grant  and  Greeley  opposed  to  each 
other.  The  latter  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  contest,  and 
lie  j»aid  for  his  efforts  with  his  life.  He  was  sixty-one  years  of  age, 
and  the  physical  exertions  he  made  were  in  themselves  carried  t<>  the 
extreme  of  imprudence.  On  the  top  of  all  came  a  crushing,  heart- 
breaking disappointment.  The  chances  of  success  had  seemed  fair 
enough,  and  therefore  the  final  results  must  have  been  due  largely  to 
political  treachery,  which  was  keenly  felt  by  Mr.  Greeley.  New  Fork 
State  gave  Grant  a  majority  of  53.450;  and  in  the  Electoral  College. 
Greeley's  vote  with  all  other  candidates  combined  made  only  (ili. 
while  Grant  alone  had  300.  Even  before  the  College  met  to  announce 
that  result  officially  .Mi-.  Greeley,  broken  down  in  mind  as  well  as  in 
body,  had  been  removed  by  death.  It  was  so  (dearly  and  so  closely 
connected  with  the  circumstances  of  the  campaign  that  its  effect  was 
exceedingly  tragic.  Two  statues  of  a  man  so  unique  and  interesting 
in  all  his  career  express  the  esteem  ill  which  he  was  held  by  his  city. 
One  appropriately  adorns  the  entrance  to  the  noble  building  which 
is  now  the  home  of  the  great  newspaper  he  founded.  The  other, 
erected  in  1894.  stands  at  the  junction  of  Broadway  and  Sixth  Ave- 
nue, south  of  Thirty-fourth  Street,  and  the  Corporation  of  the  City 
has  named  the  space  surrounding  it  ( Ireeley  Square  as  a  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  so  wort  hy  a  citizen. 

A  faithful  record  must  relate  the  shame  as  well  as  the  glory  of  our 
city;  yet  is  it  with  a  natural  reluctance  that  we  approach  the  episode 
belonging  to  this  period  which  has  justified  the  heading  of  this  chap- 
ter, but  which  we  have  put  off  mentioning  until  now.  It  has  been 
shown  in  previous  chapters  how  a  change  came  over  the  character  of 
our  municipal  officers,  when  i m migration  began  to  assume  formidable 
proportions,  finally  making  possible  the  elevation  of  a  Fernando 
Wood  to  the  office  of  Mayor.  Yel  Wood  was  not  himself  a  foreigner. 
The  acme  of  corruption  was  reached  after  the  war.  and  culminated 
in  the  shameless  proceedings  of  the  notorious  Tweed  King;  yet.  again, 
the  man  who  has  given  a  name  to  that  blot  upon  our  municipal  his- 
tory because  he  was  tin1  moving  spirit  of  the  stupendous  thievery  then 
committed,  was  a  native  of  New  York  City,  and  no1  even  of  foreign 
parentage.  His  creatures  and  heelers,  however,  nearly  all  bore  cog 
nomens  of  unmistakable  foreign  connections.  The  plague  spot  of 
political  corruption,  which  had  already  insinuated  itself  into  the 
municipal  life  of  New  York  before  the  war.  had  the  opportunity  to 
spread  itself  insidiously  while  men's  minds  were  bent  on  outside 
events.  Besides,  the  ravages  of  battle  had  eliminated  the  better  ele- 
ment of  the  masses,  artisans,  laborers,  and  smaller  tradespeople,  leav- 
ing t  hose  who  dared  not  or  cared  not  to  go  to  t  he  front .  and  who  t  hore- 
by  showed  they  had  but  little  feeling  for  the  country  to  which  they  had 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


i:;r, 


come  to  better  their  condition.  When  they  found  that  their  votes 
would  pave  the  way  to  fortune,  or  at  least  to  easy  jobs  with  little 
work  and  much  pay,  it  was  but  natural  that  they  should  adopt  poli- 
ties as  a  profession,  serving  masters  who  manipulated  their  votes  to 
mutual  advantage.  This  state  of  affairs  made  possible  the  political 
boss,  leading  droves  of  heelers  to  the  polls.  By  the  simple  device  of 
universal  and  irresponsible  suffrage,  he  could  obtain  what  positions 
heAvanted,and  distributed  the  benefits  thereof  in  place  or  emoluments 
as  he  pleased  among  the  creatures  whose  votes  had  given  him  power. 
The  funds  that  necessarily  accrue  for  purposes  of  government  are 
always  a  peril  to  the  integrity  of  a  free  system  like  ours.  Its  enor- 
mous quantity  tempts  the  unscrupulous,  and  methods  of  access  to  it 
and  subsequent  peculation  are  easily  contrived  when  people  of  the 
lowest  moral  status  with  no  responsibility  whatever,  nor  any  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  the  State,  can  be  herded  together  and  by  their  com- 
bined and  skillfully  marshaled  votes,  neutralize  the  suffrages  of  peo- 
ple of  weight  in  character  or  means,  overwhelming  them  by  greater 
numbers,  and  reducing  them  to  a  helpless  minority. 

William  Marcy  Tweed,  "by  merit  raised  to  that  bad  eminence" 
which  requires  singling  him  out  in  this  story  of  our  city's  shame,  was 
born,  as  a  recent  chronicler  relates  with  great  particularity,  at  24 
Cherry  Street.  It  was  a  more  desirable  neighborhood  then  than  now. 
His  parents  were  Americans  and  evidently  admirers  of  William  L. 
Marcy,  who  in  1833  became  Governor  of  the  State,  since  they  called 
their  child  after  him.  Tweed's  birthyear  was  1823.  He  had  a  com- 
mon school  education,  and  began  life  as  a  respectable  artisan,  a 
manufacturer  of  chairs,  the  only  honest  thing  he  ever  did.  But  very 
early  he  gave  signs  of  an  innate  dishonesty;  a  gentleman  who  knc w 
him  iu  early  days  has  often  told  the  writer  that  no  one  would  trust 
Tweed  with  a  quarter  around  the  next  corner.  He  soon  saw  in  the 
politics  of  the  city  a  chance  to  pursue  dishonest  schemes  with  profit 
and  with  safety,  for  he  had  not  the  courage  of  the  common  thief  or 
burglar.  In  1850,  when  but  twenty-seven  years  old  he  was  already  an 
Alderman.  At  this  time  street-railway  franchises  were  freely  sold 
by  the  Council,  and  the  city  fathers  were  familiarly  called  the  "  Forty 
Thieves."  As  he  and  his  fellow  members  were  arrested  for  these  pro- 
ceedings, Tweed,  who  escaped  conviction,  determined  to  try  Con- 
gress  for  a  while;  his  wish  in  that  line  only  needed  to  be  known  to 
make  nomination  and  election  by  the  hordes  that  voted  at  his  beck  a 
mere  matter  of  course.  Congress  afforded  uo  chance  for  peculation 
and  was  therefore  altogether  too  uninteresting.  Meanwhile  the 
qualm  of  reform  had  departed  from  the  New  York  public  and  it  need- 
ed only  a  little  more  careful  manipulation  to  make  stealing  easier 
and  to  leave  it  undisturbed.  In  1857  Tweed  was  made  a  School  Com- 
missioner, and  his  fingers  began  at  once  to  rummage  around  for  dol- 
lars in  the  public  crib.   It  was  not  much  that  lie  could  realize  in  this 


•436  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


V.  TRIBUNE.  /<MJC^soi.i..'>i.i.ow /if  to /*t*ojvk  n\inn  (p'< 


WHO  STOLE  THE  PEOPLES  MOAin?- 00  TfLL.NY.T.MES.  'TWA5  HIM. 


TWEED  CARTOONS   BY  THOMAS  NA8T. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


437 


position.  As  member  and  later  President  (four  times  so  elected)  of 
the  Board  of  Supervisors  of  the  County,  however,  opportunities 
opened  and  multiplied,  for  by  this  body  the  State  tax  was  to  be  ap- 
portioned and  raised.  But  a  finer  chance  yet  for  theft  was  afforded 
by  the  position  of  Street  Commissioner.  Contractors  were  told  to 
make  out  their  bills  with  fifteen  per  cent,  overcharge.  1  f  t  hoy  did  not 
do  that  they  would  not  get  their  bills  paid  at  all.  Still  there  was  dan- 
ger of  being  assailed  by  people  inconsiderately  and  obstreperously 
honest ;  and  to  be  perfectly  undisturbed  in  these  operations,  the  idea 
of  the  "  Ring  "  suggested  itself.  That  is,  there  must  be  a  number  of 
officials  playing  into  each  other's  hands,  and  thereby  keep  off  the 
hands  of  a  meddlesome  public.  To  secure  this  result  the  voting- 
machinory  as  well  as  the  voting  masses,  must  be  under  the  control 
of  the  robbers.  The  Board  of  Supervisors  appointed  inspectors  of 
election.  On  a  certain  day  when  this  duty  was  to  be  performed  Tweed 
and  two  of  his  six  Democratic  fellow  members  bribed  one  of  the  six 
Republican  members  to  stay  away.  The  inspectors  therefore  were  all 
made  of  exactly  the  kind  that  was  needed.  Now  the  heelers  were 
given  careful  instructions  how  to  vote.  They  were  to  assume  several 
names,  and  give  as  many  different  addresses,  and  vote  as  often  as  the 
number  of  their  names,  and  in  as  many  districts.  Tweed's  house  in 
1868  harbored  six  voters;  a  certain  Coroner's  was  supposed  to  contain 
thirteen.  One  Alderman's  residence  furnished  twenty  citizens,  an- 
other's twenty-five.  A  State  Senator,  as  became  his  superior  dignity, 
registered  from  his  house  no  less  than  thirty  citizens  of  the  United 
States  with  the  sovereign  right  of  the  ballot.  But  these  citizens  were 
also  created  by  the  thousand  by  the  process  of  naturalization.  It  took 
no  more  than  five  minutes  to  make  fifteen  naturalized  citizens;  and 
these  people  were  driven  in  droves  like  cattle  from  polling  place  to 
polling  place  and  bidden  vote  as  they  were  told.  The  Inspectors  of 
Election  being  secured,  and  obedient  roughs  standing  ready  to  beat 
any  decent  citizen  into  insensibility  who  should  show  a  disposition  to 
interfere, well  might  Tweed  sneeringly  ask  of  a  helpless  public," What 
are  you  going  to  do  about  it?  "  As  a  result  of  this  skillful  maneuver- 
ing, Tweed  as  Street  Commissioner  was  flanked  on  one  side  by  a  Comp- 
troller, Richard  D.  Connolly,  who  paid  the  bills;  on  the  other  by  a 
City  Chamberlain,  Peter  B.  Sweeney;  while  three  judges  were  placed 
upon  the  bench  to  block  the  ways  of  justice  when  it  sought  to  reach 
the  robbers,  viz.,  Barnard,  Cardozo,  and  McOunn.  The  Mayor,  A. 
Oakey  Hall,  afterward  escaped  all  convictions  as  an  accomplice,  but 
he  signed  vouchers  without  closely  examining  them,  or  according  to 
his  own  term,  "  ministerially,"  by  which  he  meant  that  he  was  not 
obliged  even  to  read  them  over. 

Everything  being  thus  complete,  and  the  "  Ring  "  in  perfect  shape 
for  successful  operation,  there  was  no  reason  why  the  money  should 
not  be  stolen  by  the  hundred  thousand  and  the  million.   In  1863  the 


438 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


expenses  of  the  Street  J )epart ment  reached  the  sum  of  sOoO.OOO.  In 
1807  Tweed  had  made  them  #2.000, 0110.    Twenty-six  dailies,  and  fifty- 
four  weekly  papers  were  pampered  with  great  fees  for  official  adver- 
tising: when  the  ring  was  smashed,  twenty-seven  of  t  hese  purveyors 
of  information  went  out  of  existence  at  once.    The  County  Court 
House  remains  to-day  a  monument  of  I  he  gigantic  transactions  of  this 
ring  of  thieves,  and  illustrates  well  hew  l  hey  operated.    It  was  stipu- 
lated  in  the  lull  authorizing  its  construction  that  it  should  not  cost 
more  than  $250,000.    Before  work  upon  it  was  begun,  in  1868,  one  mill- 
ion had  been  appropriated ;  while  in  1872,  when  it  was  not  yet  finished. 
SS. 000. 000  had  been  expended,  or  four  times  the  cost  of  the  magnifi- 
cent Parliament  Buildings  in  London;  and  when  it  was  finally  done, 
the  sum  had  grown  to  between  twelve  and  fourteen  millions  of  dol- 
lars.    The   bill  for 
carpets    alone  was 
S4.S2JU20.  Andrew 
H.  Garvey,  who  died 
the  other  day  in  ex- 
ile, put  in  a  bill  for 
plastering  amount- 
ing   to  13,495,626; 
and   the  plumber's 
bill   was  1 1,508,410. 
The  city's  debt  rose 
into    the    scores  of 
millions.  Tweed 
seemed  to  grow  more 
greedy  from  t  he  very 
satisfaction    of  his 
lust   for  money.  He 
boasted  that  his  for- 
tune was  now  s20.O00.O00.  and  that  it  would  soon  approach  Yandor- 
bilt's  in  magnitude. 

It  was  impossible,  however,  that  such  scoundrelism  could  go  on 
with  impunity  for  very  long.  The  thieves,  intoxicated  by  the  very 
success  of  their  inordinate  rapacity,  were  bound  to  quarrel  and  fall 
out  among  themselves,  and  then  honest  men  would  be  sure  to  come  by 
their  dues.  Somebody  would  eventually  be  dissatisfied  with  his  share 
of  the  spoils  ami  then  there  would  be  a  break-up.  The  Sheriff,  -lames 
O'Brien,  gained  possession  of  some  papers  which  minutely  recorded 
certain  pecuniary  transactions  of  the  ring.  He  had  no  intention  of 
serving  the  public  by  an  exposure  of  them,  but  Tweed  had  been  some 
what  slow  to  allow  a  claim  of  his  to  a  part  of  I  he  spoils,  and  he  t  hreat- 
ened  to  publish  the  papers  unless  his  demands  were  met.  Negotiations 
failed  at  tirst  by  reason  of  Tweed's  overweening  confidence;  and  w  hen 
prudence  prevailed  and  terms  were  about  to  be  concluded  other  cir- 


COt'NTY   COIKT  IIOISK. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


439 


cumstances  intervened.  Thus  on -July  is,  LS71,  O'Brien  went  to  the  of- 
fice of  the  New  York  Times,  placed  a  copy  of  the  damaging  papers  in 
the  hands  of  the  proprietor,  telling  him  to  do  with  them  what  he 
pleased,  and  left  without  even  sitting  down.  On  July  20  1  he  Times  be- 
gan the  publication,  continuing  until  July  29,  and  all  the  city  knew 
how  much  and  in  what  ways  the  Tweed  Ring  had  stolen  their  millions. 

Now  followed  indignation  meetings,  and  indictments,  and  trials  too 
tedious  to  follow  in  detail.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  Ring  was 
smashed  effectually  though  not  easily  even  now,  so  carefully  had  the 
rascals  intrenched  themselves.  It  is  to  be  nofed  with  regret  that  all 
but  one  member  of  the  ring  escaped  imprisonment,  although  many 
were  obliged  to  sacrifice  a  good  part  of  their  ill-gotten  wealth  by 
sudden  flight  to  foreign  parts,  and  some  had  to  live  in  exile  the  re- 
mainder of  their  days.  Nevertheless,  there  is  satisfaction  in  the  fact 
that  the  one  member  of  the  Ring  who  was  caught  and  punished  was 
the  head  and  center  of  it,  or  Tweed  himself.  On  October  28,  1871,  he 
was  arrested,  and  being  put  under  one  million  dollars  bail,  Judge 
Cardozo  allowed  Tweed's  son  to  become  his  bondsman  with  property 
transferred  to  him  by  his  father.  He  escaped  serious  inconvenience 
in  this  way  several  times.  In  January,  1873,  however,  he  was  brought 
to  trial  on  two  hundred  counts  before  Judge  Noah  Davis,  when  a 
jury's  disagreement  again  favored  him.  At  last,  in  November,  1873, 
he  was  convicted  and  sentenced  by  Judge  Davis  to  twelve  years'  im- 
prisonment. He  was  sent  to  the  Penitentiary,  but  was  released  in 
June,  1875,  on  a  decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  that  his  sentence,  be- 
ing cumulative,  was  illegal.  He  was  at  once  re-arrested  on  suits  of  a 
civil  nature  to  recover  $6,000,000,  and  his  bail  was  put  at  three  mill- 
ions. This  he  could  not  raise  and  he  was  consigned  to  Ludlow  Street 
jail.  He  was  aided  in  an  escape  thence  by  his  old  friend  Sheri.'f 
O'Brien,  in  December,  1875.  He  fled  to  Cuba,  and  was  arrested  there 
while  living  under  an  assumed  name  as  a  supposed  filibuster,  but 
was  released  by  the  American  Consul,  wTho  failed  to  recognize  him 
until  too  late,  so  that  he  escaped  and  reached  Vigo,  Spain.  There  he 
was  identified  by  his  resemblance  to  Nast's  cartoons,  which  had  gone 
all  over  the  world;  and  by  an  act  of  courtesy  the  Spanish  Government 
delivered  him  up,  as  there  was  no  extradition  treaty  requiring  it  to 
do  so.  In  November,  1S7<>.  he  became  once  more  an  inmate  of  Ludlow 
Street  jail;  on  March  8,  1876,  a  verdict  for  over  six  millions  of  dollars 
was  obtained  against  him;  aud  as  this  sum  was  now  utterly  beyond 
his  power  to  pay,  a  prison  was  the  abode  assigned  to  him  for  another 
number  of  years.  In  1877  he  offered  to  turn  State's  evidence,  and  tes- 
tified to  many  of  the  frauds  perpetrated  by  the  Ring.  He  had  hoped 
that  this  service  would  procure  his  release,  and  when  he  was 
disappointed  he  broke  down  in  health,  and  died  in  prison,  on  April 
12,  1S7S,  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  fifty-five.  It  was  an  im- 
pressive ending,  quite  in  accord  with  the  good  story-books.   The  three 


440 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


441 


King  judges  suffered  impeachment,  Barnard  aud  McCunu  standing- 
trial  and  being  removed;  while  Gardozo  resigned  to  escape  trial.  But 
while  all  this  was  satisfactorj^  to  a  degree,  and  though  the  smashing 
of  the  Ring  was  a  great  triumph  for  the  better  element,  reflecting 
credit  on  the  press,  the  bar,  and  the  citizens  generally,  we  cannot  but 
agree  with  the  Hon.  Mr.  Roberts's  reflections  on  the  incidents.  "  The 
marvel  is,"  he  says,  "that  a  great  city  should  suffer  such  crimes  to 
go  on  before  its  eyes;  should  allow  its  expenditures  and  its  debt  to 
run  up  by  the  scores  of  millions;  should  continue  to  accept  such  per- 
sons as  its  representatives  and  its  rulers;  should  tolerate  the  display 
of  their  pleasures  and  expenditures,  of  their  impudent  dictation  and 
audacious  defiance  of  courts  and  statutes.''  The  marvel  is  still  with 
us. 

Political  corruption,  affecting  legislators  and  judges  as  well  as  city 
officials,  was  responsible  also  for  the  direst  effects  of  financial  specu- 
lation. There  still  stand  vividly  before  the  memory  of  middle  aged 
men  the  two  "  Black  Fridays,"  the  September  24,  of  1869,  and  the 
September  19,  of  1873.  The  first  was  the  result  of  speculation  in  gold. 
The  war  having  made  necessary  the  issue  of  large  quantities  of  paper 
currency,  to  be  redeemed  later  in  coin  or  gold,  there  was  a  constant 
fluctuation  in  the  value  of  this  paper  money  as  compared  with  gold. 
The  less  gold  in  circulation,  the  higher  rose  its  price  in  paper.  In  this 
state  of  affairs  men  of  the  stamp  of  James  Fisk  saw  their  opportunity 
for  money-making.  Their  scheme  was  to  produce  a  "  corner  "  in  gold, 
buying  up  all  they  could  get  hold  of.  Its  scarcity  in  market  of  course 
caused  a  rise  in  its  price.  With  crass  impudence  Fisk  announced  his 
purpose  to  run  gold  up  to  200  on  the  very  day — Black  Friday — when 
came  the  crash.  Many  brokers  began  to  sell  at  the  running  prices 
when  they  saw  that  Fisk  could  not  compel  any  higher.  The  Go  - 
ernment  also  put  four  millions  of  gold  upon  the  market,  thus  helping 
to  break  the  "  corner."  Fisk  would  have  been  ruined,  but  he 
shamelessly  refused  to  fulfill  his  contracts  to  sell  on  the  orders  for 
lower  prices  than  those  at  which  he  had  bought.  When  his  victims 
sought  redress  from  the  courts  they  found  themselves  bound  hand 
and  foot  by  injunctions  issued  by  corrupt  judges  previously 
"  bought."  Fisk  had  purchased  a  controlling  share  in  Pike's  Opera 
House,  now  the  Grand  Opera  House,  on  the  corner  of  Eighth  Avenue 
and  Twenty-third  Street.  The  popular  indignation  against  him  was 
so  great  that  he  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  this  building  hiring 
toughs  to  guard  him  against  attempts  of  the  people  to  break  in  and 
drag  him  out. 

The  Black  Friday  of  1873  was  due  to  a  variety  of  causes.  There 
was  as  yet  no  resumption  of  specie  payment,  and  a  man  having  a 
thousand  or  ten  thousand  greenback  dollars  in  hand,  was  deceiving 
himself  if  he  thought  himself  really  worth  that  much.  If  he  had 
bought  a  property  with  greenbacks,  it  was  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 


442 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in  solid  money  he  could  get  the  price  he  paid,  and  when  he  realized 
the  fact  it  gave  him  a  sense  of  loss,  perhaps  of  ruin.  The  hies  in  Chi- 
cago and  Boston  had  reduced  immense  sums  of  money  to  ashes;  in- 
volving also  the  destruction  or  weakening  of  many  financial  institu- 
tions. Railroads 'had  been  constructed  all  over  the  country  beyond 
the  necessity  for  them,  and  bonds  held  in  their  name  being  supposed 
to  represent  the  value  of  the  money  paid  for  them,  were  suddenly 
found  to  be  worthless.  The  best  of  financiers  were  not  proof  against 
this  delusion.  Holding  considerable  of  such  bonds  the  firms  of  Jay 
Cooke  &  Co.,  and  Fiske,  Batch  &  Co.  were  involved  in  ruin ;  and  when 
it  was  learned  that  these  eminent  and  upright  bankers  had  been  de- 
ceived by  the  values  of  railroad  bonds,  a  panic  seized  upon  every  one. 
Even  good  bonds  were  thrown  upon  the  market  and  sold  for  a  pit- 
tance. Enormous  losses  were  thus  entailed  in  the  fear  of  losing  still 
more,  for  many  found  that  what  they  held  in  hand  was  of  no  value  to 
speak  of  on  one  day  though  it  had  been  a  good  investment  the  day 
before.  But  these  acts  of  folly  and  desperation  were  stayed  by  the 
hand  of  Mr.  Jay  Gould,  w  ho  had  been  greatly  blamed  in  connection 
with  the  former  Black  Friday.  At  a  certain  stage  of  the  market 
although  he  might  have  let  it  go  down  still  further  and  have  thus  re- 
alized still  larger  profits  on  subsequent  sales.  Mr.  Gould  bought  sev- 
eral hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  shares  of  good  railroads,  sue] 
as  those  of  the  Vanderbilt  system,  thus  arresting  their  decline  an 
saving  many  brokers  from  utter  ruin.  On  September  20.  thirty-live 
firms  were  announced  as  having  suspended.  The  Stock  Exchange  was 
closed  on  that  day.  and  did  not  again  open  its  doors  till  the  30th.  The 
excitement  in  the  streets  near  t  he  Stock  Exchange  was  intense.  Wall 
Street,  and  Broad  to  Exchange  Place,  was  one  solid  mass  of  men.  and 
in  the  drizzling  rain  on  Black  Friday  itself  people  stood  on  the  stairs 
of  the  Treasury  Building  watching  the  actions  of  the  agitated  finan- 
ciers, shouting  and  running  hither  and  thither,  or  looking  in  silence 
their  blank  despair.  When  the  Exchange  was  closed  a  sort  of  im- 
promptu one  was  organized  in  the  open  air  by  brokers  who  were  not 
members.  The  panic  at  the  heart  of  the  country's  finances  was  felt 
all  over  the  Fnion.  Credits  languished,  prices  of  securities  of  all 
kinds  fell,  even  Government  bonds  declined.  Savings  banks  were 
subjected  to  ruinous  runs,  and  many  succumbed.  Manufactured 
goods  were  lowered  in  price,  factories  shut  down  or  ran  on  short  time, 
and  wage-earners  were  thrown  out  of  employment.  It  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  long  siege  of 4 '  hard  times." 

Municipal  matters  have,  alas,  already  filled  too  many  pages  of  this 
chapter.  In  1866  the  .Mayor  was  John  T.  Hoffman,  in  many  respects 
;in  interesting  character,  a  man  of  good  presence,  and  good  abilities, 
as  yet  in  the  prime  of  manhood,  being  only  thirty-seven  years  old. 
I  re  was  a  graduate  of  Fnion  College.  Two  years  later  he  was  elected 
Governor  of  the  State,  obtaining  over  twenty-seven  thousand  major- 


444 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


ity  while  Horatio  Seymour,  the  presidential  candidate,  received  a 
majority  over  Grant  in  the  State  of  only  ten  thousand.  He  bid  fair  to 
lead  Ins  party  in  a  National  contest  at  no  very  distant  date.  when, 
still  young,  death  claimed  him.  lie  had  to  resign  his  .Mayoralty  to 
accept  the  Governorship.  His  successor  w  as  A.  Oakey  Hall,  w  ho  has 
been  mentioned  on  a  previous  page.  He  is  still  living  and  came  be- 
fore the  public  the  other  day  as  counsel  for  the  loader  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army  in  a  suii  brought  by  neighbors  who  were  annoyed  by  the 
midnight  noises  made  by  these  strange  religionists.  Hall  w  as  a  man 
of  many  parts.  He  was  a  native  of  New  York  City,  and  figured  in 
turn  as  a  lawyer,  a  writer,  a  dramatist,  a  lecturer,  an  actor,  and  fi- 
nally as  a  politician.  He  was  indicted  for  complicity  with  the  King, 
but  was  acquitted,  firsl  by  reason  of  the  death  of  a  juryman,  then  by 
a  disagreement  of  the  jury.  The  tirst  edition  of  Prof.  James  Bryce's 
celebrated  work,  "  The  American  Commonwealth."  contained  some- 
what unsparing  strictures  on  the  ex-Mayor  for  his  share  in  the  doings 
of  the  Tweed  King.  Hence  a  suit  w  as  brought  by  Mr.  Hall  against  the 
publishers,  so  that  later  editions  of  the  book  appear  without  that 
forceful  illustrative  chapter.  During  his  term  occurred  the  Orange 
Riots  of  187(1  and  1871.  July  12  is  the  anniversary  of  the  Battle  of 
the  Boyne.  which  determined  the  struggle  between  James  II.,  and  his 
son-in-law  William.  Prince  of  Orange,  who  had  been  proclaimed  King 
of  England.  The  Protestant  Irishmen  celebrate  the  day  as  a  great 
event  in  their  civil  and  religious  history.  The  Catholic  Irishmen  have 
their  St.  Patrick's  Day  on  March  17.  w  hen  they  parade  the  streets 
of  the  city,  playing  national  tunes,  wearing  the  green,  and  in  every 
way  asserting  both  their  nationality  and  religion.  It  would  seen!  as 
if  that  right  belonged  equally  to  other  nationalities  or  faiths.  But 
on  July  12.  1870.  the  Catholic  Irishmen,  feeling  that  they  practically 
owned  the  city,  undertook  to  mob  the  Orangemen  on  their  march 
through  the  streets.  On  the  approach  of  July  12.  L871,  loud  threats 
were  made  that  the  Orangemen  would  not  be  allowed  to  parade  at 
all.  In  weak  subservience  to  their  henchmen  and  supporters  at  the 
polls,  the  Ring  officials  gave  effect  to  these  threats  in  an  unexpected 
and  disgraceful  manner.  Superintendent  of  Police  James  J.  Kelso, 
probably  at  the  instance  of  Mayor  Hall,  issued  an  order  on  the  pre- 
vious day  forbidding  the  Orangemen  to  march.  At  once  citizens  of 
all  classes  and  beliefs  rose  up  in  wrath  against  this  manifest  unfair- 
ness; a  mass  meeting  was  held  at  the  Produce  Exchange  and  the  ac- 
tion of  the  city  authorities  vigorously  denounced.  Governor  Hoffman 
was  thereupon  summoned  to  the  city  by  telegraph,  and  on  his  arrival 
he  immediately  revoked  the  order  of  the  Superintendent.  A  procla- 
mation commanded  all  citizens  to  keep  the  peace,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  militia  were  called  under  arms  to  protect  the  Orangemen  if 
they  should  be  mobbed.  But  few  of  the  latter  were  ready  for  the 
parade,  as  Kelso's  order  had  changed  the  plans  of  most  of  the  lodges, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


445 


and  their  members  had  arranged  to  spend  the  day  in  private  picnics. 
Thus  the  parade  i »resented  the  spectacle  of  some  National  rather  than 
a  foreign  and  religious  celebration,  as  it  was  made  up  of  the  Seventh, 
Twenty-second,  Sixth,  Eighth,  Ninth,  and  Eighty-fourth  Regiments, 
and  a  body  of  only  100  Orangemen.  No  trouble  occurred  uutil  the 
column  reached  the  block  on  Eighth  Avenue,  between  Twenty-fourth 
and  Twenty-fifth  Streets.  Here  some  one  fired  a  shot  from  a  tenement 
house,  which  was  probably  a  preconcerted  signal,  for  at  once  a  volley 
of  bricks  and  stones  followed,  and  fell  among  the  soldiery  and 
Orangemen.  Chimneys  were  torn  down  and  the  bricks  hurled  from 
roofs  upon  the  de- 
voted heads  of  the 
m  i  1  i  t  i  a.  They 
stood  this  quite 
patiently  until  an 
officer  of  the  Ninth 
Regiment  was 
knocked  senseless 
f  r  o  m  his  horse, 
either  by  a  bullet 
or  a  stone.  With- 
out waiting  for  the 
order  to  fire  the 
men  of  the  Ninth 
poured  a  volley 
into  the  tenement 
whence  the  mur- 
derous missile  had 
come,  and  the  men 
of  the  Eighty- 
fourth  followed 
their  example. 
The  deadly  fire 
had  a  good  effect 
in  taking  the  fight 
out  of  the  mob  be- 
f  o  r  e  the  y  had 
fairly  commenced. 
Fifty-four  persons 


were  killed. 


THE  POSTOFFICE. 


including  three  members  of  the 
Ninth  Regiment.  As  usual,  quite  a  number  of  the  victims  were  in- 
nocent spectators.  No  further  trouble  was  experienced  on  the  way 
down  to  the  armory  of  the  Seventh  Regiment  (then  over  Tompkins 
Market,  on  Third  Avenue  and  Seventh  Street)  except  that  a  slight 
disposition  to  repeat  the  attack  was  manifested  on  Fourth  Avenue, 
opposite  Cooper  Institute.  The  mere  order  to  the  militia  to  halt 
and  face  about,  however,  sent  the  crowd  there  scattering  in  every 


44(3 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


direction.  About  this  time  the  notorious  James  Fisk  had  temporarily 
superseded  Colonel  William  Seward  as  commander  of  the  Ninth  Regi- 
ment. He  discreetly  absented  himself  from  the  city,  as  his  bravery 
consisted  exclusively  in  spreading  ruin  among  unwary  and  innocent 
investors  in  railroad  stocks.  Jt  is  possible  that  the  hatred  he  had  in- 
curred by  his  Black  Friday  proceedings  might  have  caused  the  bullet 
of  private  revenge  to  be  leveled  at  him  in  the  melee.  Two  years  later 
that  very  fate  met  him  from  a  rival  aspirant  to  the  sinful  favors  of  an 
adventuress,  in  the  corridor  of  a  hotel  on  Broadway. 

Early  in  the  year  18G5  there  was  effected  a  radical  change  in  the 
New  York  Fire  Department.  The  volunteer  system  was  abolished. 
A  Board  of  Fire  Commissioners,  consisting  of  four  members,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Governor,  and  the  men  employed  were  paid  by  the  city. 
On  .May  2  this  new  order  of  affairs  went  into  effect.  The  firemen 
were  supplied  with  steam  fire  engines  such  as  had  been  in  use  in  Lon- 
don for  some  time,  and  the  old  and  inadequate  hand-engine  drawn 
by  the  men  themselves  to  the  scene  of  tires,  were  laid  aside  perma- 
nently. Not  long  after  the  new  organization  had  been  put  into  work- 
ing order,  there  was  a  first-class  fire  to  test  its  efficiency.  On  July  18. 
L865,  Barnum's  Museum  on  the  site  of  the  later  Herald  Building  and 
the  present  St.  Paul  Building,  corner  of  Ann  Street  and  Broadway, 
was  found  to  be  on  fire,  and  it  soon  required  the  whole  force  to  save 
t  he  neighborhood.  It  was  impossible  to  arrest  t  he  flames  in  the  build- 
ing itself,  belching  forth  fire  and  smoke  from  every  story.  But  the 
old  Knox  building,  and  others  in  the  vicinity  were  preserved  from  the 
destroying  (dement.  There  were  great  crowds  up  and  down  Broad- 
way and  filling  the  side  streets,  watching  the  brilliant  display  and 
regarding  with  interest  the  operations  of  the  trained  firemen  and  of 
the  novel  engines,  puffing  away  at  a  rate  which  seemed  to  threaten 
explosion. 

Another  municipal  event  of  great  importance  was  the  appointment 
of  a  Board  of  Health  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature  in  February,  1866. 
It  was  to  consist  of  four  members.  The  first  Board  was  composed  of 
three  physicians,  Drs.  Willard  Parker,  John  ().  Stone,  and  James 
Crane,  and  one  layman  .Mr.  Jackson  S.  Schultz,  who  was  made  chair- 
man. This  institution  was  all  the  more  gladly  hailed,  and  its  great 
powers  freely  accorded  to  it.  because  in  the  preceding  November  there 
had  been  another  cholera  scare.  The  steamship  Atalanta.  sailing  be- 
tween London  and  New  York,  had  brought  over  some  passengers  suf- 
fering from  this  plague.  The  contagion  spread  to  a  small  extent  in 
the  vicinity  where  the  patients  were  confined,  but  winter  being  at 
hand  it  was  checked.  In  the  spring  another  steamer  brought  over  a 
number  of  sufferers  from  cholera,  and  now  the  disease  broke  out  in 
various  parts  of  the  city,  reaching  its  height  during  August.  Yet  by 
the  care  of  the  new  Hoard  of  Health  it  was  con  lined  to  only  the  most 
unhealthy  districts  of  the  city,  and  not  more  than  four  hundred  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


447 


sixty  cases  proved  fatal  within  the  city  proper.  In  L870  another 
Municipal  Department,  that  of  Docks,  was  created,  but  in  all  these 
years  since  the  Board  has  accomplished  but  a  very  insignificant  part 
of  its  original  designs.  It  is  somewhat  surprising  that  the  .Mayor 
was  permitted  to  appoint,  or  at  least  nominate  these  Dock  Commis- 
sioners.  The  control  of  the  city  was  all  this  time  thoroughly  localized 
at  Albany.  As  we  have  seen  before,  it  was  hoped  that  this  policy 
would  stay  the  tide  of  corruption  which  had  begun  to  rise  as  early  as 
1857.  Prof.  Fiske  points  out  that  this  did  not  prevent  the  Tweed 
frauds.  Indeed,  the  King  made  the  control  of  the  Legislature  a  plea 
for  their  peculations  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  and  a  proof  of  the  inno- 
cence of  their  intentions.  In  order  to  get  the  "  hayseed  "  legislators 
to  do  anything  really  of  great  use  to  the  city,  Tweed  claimed  that  they 
had  to  be  bought  over,  at  good  round  figures;  and  it  was  to  "reim- 
burse "  themselves  for  these  outlays  that  the  virtuous  city  politicians 
had  put  their  hands  into  the  municipal  treasury  and  robbed  it  by  the 
million.  By  the  use  of  bribes  Tweed  actually  secured  the  passage  of 
a  charter  abolishing  all  control  of  the  city  from  Albany:  it  proved  a 
boomerang  later.  Another  change  of  importance  was  the  abolition 
of  the  Board  of  Assistant  Aldermen.  This  was  done  by  an  act  dated 
June  13,  1873,  by  wrhich  also  the  State  and  charter  elections  were 
again  directed  to  take  place  on  the  same  day.  The  Common  Council 
was  now  to  consist  only  of  Aldermen,  one  from  each  ward,  of  which 
at  t  his  time  there  were  twenty-one.  The  population  of  the  city  in  1870 
had  reached  942,292  souls,  thus  nearly  approaching  the  million  mark. 
Its  sister,  and  near  neighbor,  Brooklyn,  with  its  390,099  souls  stood 
third  on  the  list  of  cities  of  the  Union;  Philadelphia  being  second  with 
674,022. 

Within  a  remarkably  short  time  of  each  other,  there  died  during 
this  period  some  of  the  most  eminent  New  York  journalists.  We  have 
related  the  death  of  Horace  Greeley,  on  November  29,  1872.  On 
June  18,  1809,  his  early  coadjutor  on  the  Tribune,  but  later 
editor  of  the  Times,  Henry  J.  Raymond,  passed  away.  On  June  1, 
1872,  the  founder  of  the  Herald  died,  the  venerable  James  Gordon 
Bennett,  who  had  reached  the  goodly  age  of  seventy-seven,  while 
Greeley  was  only  sixty-one,  and  Raymond  not  more  than  fifty.  Of  still 
greater  age,  and  more  widely  known  as  a  literary  man  and  poet,  was 
the  editor  of  the  Evening  Post,  William  Cullen  Bryant.  He  was 
seventy-eight  in  the  year  that  Greeley  and  Bennett  died,  and  lived  till 
1878,  attaining  the  high  age  of  eighty-four.  A  most  honorable  part 
was  played  by  such  papers  as  wre  have  just  mentioned  in  the  warfare 
against  Tweed.  We  have  related  how  Sheriff  O'Brien  brought  docu- 
ments exposing  the  Ring's  financial  operations  to  the  proprietor  of  the 
Times,  and  how,  from  July  20  to  29,  1871,  this  journal  gave  the  facts 
freely  to  the  public.  Connolly  came  to  Mr.  Jones,  either  before  the 
publication  of  the  papers  or  after  the  first  had  come  out,  aud  offered 


4  IS 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


him  deliberately  (he  enormous  bribe  of  xr>.<MM),000  if  he  would  sup- 
press the  damaging  information.  The  bribe  was  indignantly  spurned. 
Laying  aside  all  journalistic  rivalry,  the  Tribune,  the  Post,  the  Stoats- 
Zeitimg,  and  other  respectable  sheets,  nobly  supported  the  Times  in 
its  crusade.   But  Harper's  Wcekh/  deserves  especial  credit  for  the  pub- 


TWEED  CARTOON — "TO  THE  VICTOR   BEEONOS  THE  si  "OILS." 


Iication  of  Thomas  Xast's  irresistible  cartoons.  Bv  mea ds  of  these, 
as  wo  saw,  Tweed  was  identified  oven  in  Spain.  The  monumental 
robber  feared  these  cartoons  immensely  more  than  he  did  the  expo- 
sures and  diatribes  in  t he  ot her  journals.  "  1  don't  care  what  people 
write."  he  said.  "  for  my  people  can't  read.    But  they  have  eyes,  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


449 


they  can  sec  as  well  as  other  folks."  Of  course  Nast  was  offered 
money  and  a  host  of  other  favors,  houses,  trips  to  Europe,  a<l  libitum, 
but  equally  in  vain. 

The  commerce  of  the  city  had  greatly  suffered  from  the  war.  The 
Southern  privateers  made  sad  havoc  among  her  shipping  until  the 
Alabama  was  Anally  sunk.  The  merchant  marine  thus  destroyed  was 
not  replaced  after  the  war,  because  ships  were  being  built  of  iron 
rather  than  wood,  and  we  were  not  yet  in  a  condition  to  compete  with 
England  in  that  kind  of  building.  To  remedy  this  defect,  protection 
was  tried.  No  vessel  constructed  abroad  was  allowed  to  obtain 
American  registry.  Whatever  the  excellence  of  this  plan  may  be 
theoretically,  the  shipbuilding  industry  was  certainly  kept  at  a  dis- 
count, while  the  carrying  trade  passed  at  the  same  time  to  other 
nations.  Between  1850  and  1855  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  our  ocean 
traffic  of  all  our  imports  and  exports,  was  carried  in  vessels  of  Amer- 
ican make  and  ownership.  In  1869  the  percentage  had  fallen  to  just 
thirty,  considerably  less  than  half,  with  the  commerce  of  the  world 
greatly  increased  in  those  fourteen  years. 

Social  life  in  the  city  in  the  period  after  the  war  was  marked  by 
a  continuation  in  the  establishment  of  societies  for  mutual  improve- 
ment, or  with  benevolent  designs.  In  April,  1860,  was  founded  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals.  Its  establishment 
was  due  to  the  compassion,  energy,  and  single-heartedness  of  one 
man.  Mr.  Henry  Bergh.  He  inherited  a  comfortable  fortune  from  his 
father,  the  celebrated  shipbuilder.  Christian  Bergh,  mentioned  more 
than  once  in  previous  chapters,  lie  was  at  one  time  Secretary  of 
Legation  at  St.  Petersburgh,  and  traveled  extensively  throughout 
Europe.  The  cruelties  to  animals  he  saw  perpetrated  there,  were 
fully  matched  by  what  was  daily  witnessed  in  our  own  streets.  B  it 
when  he  began  to  agitate  for  laws  on  the  subject  he  found  there  was 
a  public  sentiment  to  be  created  from  the  very  beginning.  In  the  face 
of  the  indifference  and  ridicule  of  all,  and  of  the  hostility  of  those 
whose  profit  it  was  supposed  to  be  to  practice  cruelties,  he  persisted 
in  his  efforts,  founded  his  society,  succeeded  in  educating  sentiment 
in  this  city,  and  all  over  the  country,  and  finally  secured  laws  upon 
the  statute  books  which  seriously  interfered  with  the  practices  that 
had  hitherto  been  indulged  in  with  impunity.  The  agents  of  the 
Society  are  now  everywhere,  and  it  will  no  more  do  to  brave  their  in- 
terference than  that  of  policemen  themselves.  Another  society  of  ex- 
cellent design  was  that  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice,  incorporated  at 
the  instance  of  Anthony  Comstock  in  1873.  Its  purpose  was  to  check 
the  dissemination  of  obscene  literature,  and  the  procuring  of  laws 
punishing  those  guilty  of  printing  or  circulating  such  degrading  and 
ruinous  reading.  Mr.  Comstock  has  also,  even  to  this  day,  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  much  ridicule  and  rancor,  but  the  good  accomplished  by  the 
Society  is  incalculable.   A  society  of  a  quite  different  order,  and  then 


l.-.o 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


unique  iu  the  social  history  of  the  Republic  or  city,  was  thai  of 
Sorosis,  a  club  for  women,  organized  with  twelve  members  in  March, 
1808.  It  was  founded  by  Mrs.  J.  C.  Croly.  and  its  object  was  stated 
to  be  "  to  promote  pleasant  and  useful  relations  among'  women  of 
thought  and  culture,  and  render  them  helpful  to  each  other."  These 
ladies  engaged  in  discussions  at  regular  fortnightly  meetings,  on  such 
a;i ried  topics  as  Education,  Art,  Science,  Music,  Philanthropy. 
Drama,  House  and  Home,  Business,  and  Journalism.  The  Soc  iety  has 
grown  to  goodly  proportions  since,  and  continues  to  be  a  force  in  the 
social  life  of  the  city. 

There  were  some  notable  buildings  erected  during  the  years  im- 
mediately succeeding  the  war,  indicative  of  the  growing  interest  of 
the  citizens  in  matters  of  art.  The  various  wanderings  of  the  Na- 
tional Academy  of  Design  from  the  Old  Clinton  Hall  in  Beekman 

Street  to  its  present  elegant  home,  hove  al- 
ready been  briefly  traced.  It  had  no  building 
of  its  own  till  the  one  now  occupied  was 
erected  on  the  corner  of  Twenty-third  Street 
and  Fourth  Avenue,  completed  in  18(i(i.  Its 
style  is  peculiarly  artistic,  making  it  quite 
unique  among  the  architectural  features  of 
the  city.  It  is  of  the  Venetian  Gothic  order, 
gray  and  white  marble  (or  graywacke)  and 
bluestone  blending  in  various  designs.  The 
cost  was  sl^t.'JOO.  raised  by  popular  sub- 
scription. Two  years  later.  October  31,  1868, 
the  cornerstone  was  laid  for  the  tine  stint 
^i^AAy^/ULlU^i      ture      the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 

 — ■  *  »          tion  directly  opposite  the  Academy;  in  the 

Autumn  of  1869  it  was  ready  for  occupancy. 
In  1867  Pike's  Opera  House,  afterward  purchased  and  run  by 
James  Fisk,  and  since  known  as  the  Grand  Opera  House,  was 
erected  on  the  corner  of  Twenty-third  Street  and  Eighth  Avenue. 
Early  in  L809  Edwin  Booth  opened  the  theater  built  by  him  on  the 
corner  of  Twenty-third  Street  and  Sixth  Avenue.  It  was  to  be  de- 
voted to  Shakespearean  and  the  highest  kind  of  drama.  But  it  is  no 
more;  a  somewhat  discouraging  commentary  on  the  theatrical  tastes 
of  the  community.  The  venture  proving  a  complete  failure,  entailing 
much  loss  on  the  eminent  tragedian,  the  building  was  long  since 
sold  and  torn  down  and  stores  now  occupy  the  site.  Opposite  Booth's 
was  erected  the  massive  granite  structuie  of  the  Masonic  Temple.  Its 
cornerstone  was  laid  in  June,  1870.  As  the  Old  Hall  on  Broadway, 
nearly  opposite  the  New  York  Hospital,  between  Duane  and  Pearl, 
had  been  considered  the  finest  building  next  to  the  Merchants'  Ex- 
change in  earlier  decades,  so  this  edifice,  when  completed,  took  a 
foremost  rank  among  the  noblest  and  most  imposing  structures  that 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


451 


grace  the  city  in  these  later  davs.  Among  these  now  the  United 
States  Government  began  to  place  one  worthy  of  itself  and  of  1  tie  city. 
It  was  high  time  that  the  postoffice  should  have  a  fitting  Lome.  In 
L873  ii  was  still  doing  its  work  the  best  way  it  could  in  the  old  Nassau 
Street  Church,  with  its  colony  of  outbuildings.  But  for  a  year  or  two 
the  splendid  granite  building  occupying  the  southern  end  of  the  old 
City  Hall  Park  had  been  in  course  of  erection.  In  1870  the  work  was 
begun,  and  in  August,  1875,  it  was  ready  for  use.  It  is  doubtful  if  in 
a  later  decade  the  people  would  have  allowed  the  historic  Park  to  be 
so  seriously  curtailed  even  for  so  noble  a  purpose  as  this.  Again,  in 
1860,  the  construction  of  the  Grand  Central  depot  was  begun,  oppo- 
site the  northern  end  of  the  Fourth  Avenue  tunnel,  which  was  such  a 
marvel  to  an  earlier  generation.  Opened  to  traffic  October  9,  1871, 
it  was  at  that  time  the  largest  railway  station  in  the  United  States, 
with  a  length  of  006  feet  and  a  width  of  240  feet,  affording  room  for 
twelve  tracks  side  by  side.  The  old  depot  at  Twenty-seventh  Street 
became  Barnum's  Hippodrome,  and  later  Madison  Square  Garden. 
In  March,  1S67,  Tammany  Society  prepared  to  move  to  its  new  home 
on  Fourteenth  Street,  selling  its  old  hall  on  Park  Bow  to  the  Sun 
newspaper. 

In  the  way  of  church  erection  it  would  be  impossible  to  trace  the 
various  and  increasingly  handsome  edifices  the  numerous  denomina- 
tions were  erecting  in  various  parts  of  the  city.  St.  George's  was  still 
located  in  Beekman  Street  at  the  beginning  of  this  period;  and  until 
1860  the  North  Collegiate  stood  in  Fulton.  But  in  1872  the  latter  was 
gone,  and  its  counterpart,  as  the  northernmost  of  the  Collegiate  Re- 
formed Churches,  stood  on  Fifth  Avenue  and  Forty-eighth  Street,  an 
elegant  brown  stone  structure  of  highly  ornate  Gothic  style,  dedj- 
cated  in  1872.  A  notable  event  in  the  histor}^  of  the  religions  life  of 
the  city  was  the  meeting  of  the  World's  Evangelical  Alliance  in  New 
York,  in  October  1873.  This  Alliance  represents  all  the  Protestant 
denominations  in  the  world,  and  was  organized  in  1845.  The  first 
meeting  was  held  in  London  in  1846;  the  second  in  Paris,  in  1855;  the 
third  in  Berlin,  in  1857;  the  fourth  in  Geneva,  in  1860;  the  fifth  in 
Amsterdam,  in  1867.  At  the  latter  session  the  New  York  delegates 
were  authorized  to  invite  the  Council  to  meet  in  New  York  at  its  next 
world-session,  providing  thus  for  a  quite  natural  transition  from  the 
Old  Amsterdam  to  the  New.  Various  political  disturbances  and  the 
Franco-Prussian  war  interfered,  so  that  not  till  October  1873,  was  the 
Alliance  prepared  to  meet  again.  A  social  reception  was  given  the 
foreign  delegates  at  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Building 
on  the  evening  of  October  2.  The  business  meetings  began  on  Friday, 
October  3,  and  were  continued  until  Saturday,  October  11.  On 
Sunday  evening,  October  12,  a  grand  public  farewell  service  was  held 
at  the  Acadenn  of  Music,  which  was  thronged  to  its  fullest  capacity. 

This  same  period  witnessed  an  advance  in  the  educational  system 


1.V2 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  the  city.  In  1869  the  election  of  members  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion by  the  people  was  abolished  by  the  legislature,  and  power  given 
to  the  Mayor  to  appoint  twelve  Commissioners.  These  new  men 
found  to  their  surprise  that  the  law  giving  the  Board  authority  to 
erect  a  college  for  young  men.  also  permitted  the  establishment  of  a 
similar  institution  for  girls.  They  straightway  proceeded  to  do  so, 
and  as  there  was  felt  a  great  need  of  well-trained  teachers,  they  de- 
termined to  make  the  preparation  of  these  the  special  object  of  the 
girls'  college.  Hence  it  received  the  name  of  the  Normal  College. 
Mr.  Thomas  Hunter,  the  Principal  of  Grammar  School  No.  35,  who 
had  distinguished  himself  by  abolishing  corporal  punishment,  was 

appointed  1*  resi- 
dent of  1  he  new  in- 
stitution. On  Feb- 
ruary 14.  1S70.  it 
began  work  on  the 
second  floor  of  a 
long,  two  story 
building  on  Fourth 
Street.  extending 
from  1  {roadway 
nealy  to  Lafayette 
Place.  These  quar- 
ters soon  proving 
too  small,  a  noble 
building  was  erect- 
ed up  town.  At 
first  a  part  of  Bry- 
ant  Park  was  so- 
licited from  the 
city,  but  i  t  w  a  s 
wisely  refused. 
the  normal  college.  There  was  the  old 

Hamilton      P  a  r  k. 

however,  at  Fourth  Avenue  and  Sixty-eighth  Street,  running  back  to 
Lexington  Avenue,  which  had  never  been  utilized.  This  ground  was 
given  for  the  Normal  College,  and  upon  this  the  present  structure 
arises,  occupied  for  l  he  lirst  time  in  t  he  nut  u inn  of  1ST.'?. 

1  Miring  the  war  the  city's  progress  had  almost  come  to  a  standstill 
as  regards  the  extension  of  streets  and  the  spread  of  population. 
Whereas  before  the  war  some  eight  hundred  houses  had  gone  up 
yearly,  not  more  than  from  sixty  to  eighty  per  year  were  built  from 
1S()1  to  lX(>r>.  The  population  seems  even  to  have  somewhat  de- 
creased. During  the  Tweed  regime,  while  much  was  stolen  and  much 
bad  w  ork  was  done,  a  few  enterprises  were  put  under  way  tend- 
ing to  beautifv  the  city.  The  Boulevard  was  laid  out  from  the  corner 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


453 


of  Fifty-ninth  Street  and  Eighth  Avenue  to  Tubby  Hook  or  [nwood, 
following  the  old  Bloomingdale  Road  and  making  a  drive  of  eighteen 
miles.  St.  Nicholas  Avenue  took  the  place  of  the  old  Harlem  Lane, 
a  dead  level  of  nearly  a  mile,  but  carried  beyond  that  up  the  rocks 
of  Harlem  Heights  beyond  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-first  Street  till  it 
crossed  Tenth  Avenue.  Some  avenues  further  down  town  now  among 
the  finest  were  then  as  yet  in  an  inchoate  state.  .Madison  Avenue 
above  Forty-second  Street  was  a  confusion  of  dirt  and  rocks.  Lexing- 
ton Avenue  was  not  carried  beyond  Sixty-fifth  Street.  Transit  was 
only  by  horse  cars  and  stages.  The  horsecay  is  still  with  us  to  some 
extent,  wherein  we  must  appear  slow  to  other  cities.  But  the  stage 
is  no  more,  except  in  a  totally  different  and  deteriorated  form  on 
Fifth  Avenue.  The  stages  used  to  be  things  of  interest,  and  their 
management  a  matter  of  skill,  with  their  double  teams  of  four  horses 
on  some  lines.  It  may  be  interesting  to  recall  the  routes  of  the  six 
principal  lines.  They  were  the  Broadway  and  Fifth  Avenue,  tinning 
into  the  latter  at  Fourteenth  Street;  the  Broadway.  Twenty-third 
Street,  and  Ninth  Avenue,  taking  passengers  to  the  old  Hudson  River 
Railway  Depot  at  Thirtieth  Street;  the  Broadway  and  Fourth  Ave- 
nue, running  to  the  Llarlem  Railway  Depot;  the  Broadway  and 
Eighth  Street;  the  Broadway  and  Second  Street;  and  the  Madison 
Avenue;  not  one  of  them  running  further  north  than  Forty-seventh 
Street.  In  1873  squatters  possessed  the  rocks  still  standing  high  and 
dry  on  Sixth  Avenue  between  the  horsecar  depot  at  Forty-third  Street 
and  the  Park.  Then,  too,  the  spot  where  now  rise  the  palatial  man- 
sions of  the  Yanderbilts  on  Fifth  Avenue  was  a  bare  rock  just  peep- 
ing above  the  surface.  As  another  evidence  of  the  little  regard  then 
paid  to  the  preservation  of  the  city  parks,  the  elegant  St.  John's  Lark 
was  sold  in  1867  to  the  Hudson  River  Railroad  Company,  which  soon 
occupied  the  entire  area  with  a  huge  freight  depot.  Many  of  the 
nicest  and  oldest  families  of  the  city  had  made  their  abode  there  be- 
fore this;  and  some  of  these,  the  celebrated  engineer  John  Ericsson 
among  them,  refused  to  leave  the  neighborhood  even  after  its  desecra- 
tion by  a  clamorous  traffic. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


THE  CITY   CROSSES  THE   HARLEM  RIVER. 

ARLEM  VILLAGE  is  no  more.  Harlem  as  a  separate  dis- 
trict of  the  city,  easily  distinguished,  isolated,  apart,  a 
refuge  from  the  hubbub  of  business  and  trallic. — has  also 
long  ceased  to  be.  It  has  been  engulfed  by  the  tide  of  popu- 
lation now  spread  all  over  the  island,  and  the  elevated  roads  have 
brought  it  as  near  the  heart  of  business  as  Fourteenth  Street  or 
Forty-second  Street  were  in  earlier  decades  of  the  century.  Harlem 


WATl.lt  TOWER,  HhUl  BRIDGE  AND  WASHINGTON  BRIDGE. 


is  now  only  a  name,  hardly  even  a  section;  just  as  Greenwich,  and 
Chelsea,  and  Yorkville,  and  Manhattanville,  and  Carmansville,  are 
but  names,  their  original  limits  only  to  be  identified  by  the  antiquar- 
ian. Before  we  allow  our  minds  to  contemplate  the  conditions  which 
deprived  Harlem  of  ils  distinctive  features  or  separate  existence.  "  a 
longing,  lingering  look  behind  "  at  the  ancient  state  of  things  may 
not  be  out  of  place.  We  have  seen  how  in  the  time  of  Kieft,  Dr.  de  la 
Montague.  Ins  side  councillor,  occupied  a  tract  of  land  covering  pari 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


1  ■").") 


of  Harlem,  between  Fifth  or  Third  Avenues  and  the  East  and  Harlem 
Rivers;  and  that  Joachem  Pietersen  Kuyter,  his  bold  antagonist  and 
accuser,  held  another  large  plantation  further  up  along  the  Harlem 
River,  which  he  named  "  Zegmdael,"  or.  Bliss-vale.  Walloons  early 
settled  in  this  vicinity  and  they  used  to  go  and  hear  Domine  Michael- 
ius  preach  in  the  mill-loft,  and  afterward  Domine  Bogardus  down  in 
Pearl  Street,  walking  all  the  way  from  Harlem;  those  from  New 
Rochelle,  ferrying  themselves  across  to  the  foot  of  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-fifth  Street.  Van  Twiller  took  possession  of  the 
Barents  Islands  (Randall  and  Ward);  and,  one  of  his  council  se- 
cured a  section  of  Harlem  below  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fifth 
Street  and  along  the  East  River.  Still  as  people  did  not  seem  dis- 
posed to  found  a  permanent  or  compact  settlement  there,  and  Stuy- 
vesant's  military  mind  was  set  on  having  a  post  at  this  extremity  of 
the  island  as  a  defense  against  incursions  from  the  mainland  on  the 
part  of  either  Indians  or  Yankees,  in  March,  1658,  the  Director  and 
Council  of  New  Netherland  passed  a  decree  that  a  village  be  founded 
at  this  point.  A  name  was  readily  found  for  it.  Amsterdam  in  Hol- 
land was  flanked  by  the  city  of  Haarlem  at  a  distance  about  equal  to 
that  of  the  proposed  village  from  the  fort;  and  what  more  natural 
than  that  New  Amsterdam  should  have  its  New  Haerlem,  as  the 
Dutch  city's  name  was  spelled  in  that  day.  A  road  was  laid  out  in  an 
east  and  west  direction,  touching  the  East  River  at  One  Hundred  and 
Twenty-fifth  Street,  and  a  second  road  parallel  to  it  some  fifteen  rods 
to  the  north.  Between  these  were  staked  off  the  lots  facing  on  either 
street,  and  about  93  feet  deep;  somewhat  deeper  as  they  tended  west- 
ward, the  two  streets  diverged  toward  the  West.  Cross  streets  here 
and  there  connected  the  two  main  ones,  so  that  there  might  be  about 
four  lots  to  a  block.  Northward  the  land  was  laid  out  in  farms  or 
"  gardens."  On  August  14, 1658,  ground  was  first  broken  in  the  work 
of  preparing  these  blocks  and  lots,  and  on  September  10,  the  surveys 
and  staking  were  finished.  In  this  same  summer  of  1658,  however, 
the  laborers  and  such  settlers  as  there  were,  were  greatly  afflicted  by 
the  "  distempered  atmosphere,"  so  that  a  peculiar  sickness,  attended 
with  great  "  debility,"  prevailed  among  them,  and  proved  fatal  to 
some.  This,  of  course,  was  what  we  moderns  call  "  malaria,"  a  dis- 
temper which  has  been  no  stranger  to  Harlem  in  its  later  history.  In- 
deed it  was  a  common  saying  in  the  days  which  we  have  now  reached 
in  our  narrative  (about  1874)  that  malaria  afflicted  the  very  dogs  there 
to  such  a  degree  that  they  were  too  weak  to  bark,  or  had  to  lean  up 
against  a  fence  to  go  through  that  exercise.  It  cannot  be  wondered 
at  that  people  hesitated  about  settling  there:  but  Stuyvesant's  will 
was  wont  to  override  greater  obstacles  than  this,  and  those  who  had 
accepted  lots  were  ordered  to  go  and  occupy  them  on  pain  of  losing 
them.  So  the  Slots,  and  Cressons,  and  Tourneurs,  and  Demarests, 
and  Montagues  went  out  to  brave  the  malaria,  and  they  succeeded  in 


456 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


surviving  and  leaving  posterity.  The  spring  and  summer  of  1659  saw 
these  permanent  settlers  and  earliest  Harlemites  arrive.  A  Courl  of 
Justice  was  established  and  Magistrates  appointed  on  August  16, 
1660.  In  tins  same  year  a  church  was  founded.  During  the  summer 
the  devoul  villager's  had  walked  to  New  Amsterdam  and  worslnped 
in  the  Fori  Church.  But  that  could  not  be  kept  up  in  winter  time. 
80  in  November,  1660,  we  lind  a  Rev.  Mr.  Michael  Zyperus  buying  a 
home  in  Harlem,  ami  services  were  held  in  a  private  house,  or  some 
barn.  The  hist  church-building  was  put  up  in  1<>C>4,  close  by  the  river 
and  between  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fifth  and  One  Hundred  aud 
Twenty-sixth  Streets.  It  stood  on  the  south  side  of  the  northerly  one 
of  the  two  main  roads,  which  was  called  the  Grooten  Weg  (Great  or 
Main  Road)  or  Kerk  Laan  (Church  Lane).  In  1686  the  frame  building 
was  replaced  by  a  substantial  one  of  stone,  its  length  and  breadth 
about  the  same,  with  a  steeple  and  gilt  weathercock,  of  which  the 
Haerlemmers  were  very  proud.  It  was  erected  on  the  north  side  of  t  he 
lane,  and  was  not  removed  till  1S25.  the  cemetery  surrounding  it  re- 
maining till  1868j  In  1825  a  large  (  lunch  was  built  on  the  corner  of 
Third  Avenue  and  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-tirsl  Street.  The  build- 
ing still  remains  but  when  the  elevated  trains  came  thundering  by 
and  disturbed  worship,  it  was  turned  around  to  face  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-first  Street,  and  upon  its  ample  front  yard  separating  it 
from  the  Avenue,  a  tall  business  edifice  was  erected,  producing  a  com- 
fortable revenue,  and  deadening  the  irreverent  noise  of  the  trains. 
When  the  English  came  in  1664,  Nichols  tried  to  change  the  name  of 
the  village  as  he  had  that  of  the  city,  and  called  it  Lancaster.  Hut 
thai  name  never  "struck  in,"  and  Harlem  has  prevailed  to  this  day. 
All  through  the  eighteenth  cent  ury  Harlem  was  the  objective  point  of 
lovers  and  pleasure  parties  for  sleighrides  in  winter  or  chaiserides 
in  summer.  When  in  1807  Oouverneur  Morris  and  Simeon  De  Witt 
laid  out  their  system  of  streets  as  far  as  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-fifth 
Street,  they  apologized  to  an  amazed  public,  by  saving  that  it  was 
quite  reasonable  to  suppose  that  people  would  begin  to  put  up  dwell- 
ings on  the  plains  of  Harlem,  before  they  would  occupy  the  interven- 
ing hills  to  the  South.  And  their  foresight  has  been  vindicated  abun- 
dantly by  I  he  event.  About  the  middle  of  this  century,  before  the 
advent  of  the  horse-car.  and  while  stages  still  took  infrequent  jour- 
neys to  Harlem,  there  were  no  houses  whatever  along  Third  Avenue 
between  a  tavern  at  Ninety-seventh  Street,  itself  a  distant  outpost, 
and  One  Hundred  and  Second  Street.  From  that  point  to  One  Hun- 
dred and  Twentieth  Street  only  a  few  scattering  houses  were  to  be 
seen,  while  north  of  that  street  the  dwellings  were  quite  compact,  yet 
to  no  greater  number  than  two  hundred,  and  stretching  no  further 
than  Fifth  Avenue  to  the  westward.  Then  was  St.  Nicholas  Avenue 
but  plain  Harlem  Lane,  with  its  three-quarter  mile  dead  level,  and 
shady  trees  offering  a  splendid  speed-way  for  testing  horseflesh. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


457 


MountMorris  rejoiced  in  the  plebeian  title  of  Snake  Hill, a  curious  rise 
of  rock  and  hill  in  the  midst  of  the  plain,  affording  splendid  views  of 
livers  and  islands,  and  bays,  and  woods  and  hills,  in  every  direction. 
In  1805  the  horse-cars  had  come  into  being,  and  more  people  and  more 
houses  followed,  but  a  visitor  who  had  been  familiar  with  the  village 
in  1840  still  found  it  very  little  changed.  The  great  transformation 
came  when  the  elevated  roads  were  built.  Before  this  it  had  been 
more  convenient  to  live  in  Brooklyn  or  even  in  New  Jersey  than  in  the 
upper  part  of  Manhattan  Island:  but  now  there  was  no  object  in  leav- 
ing the  island,  and  people  flocked  to  Harlem.    Iu  1874  it  was  still 


ELEVATED  RAILKOAD  CURVE  AT    110th  STREET. 


separated,  on  the  side  of  Third  Avenue,  by  a  wide  gap  of  open  country 
extending  from  about  Ninetieth  Street  to  One  Hundredth  Street.  It 
took  the  horse-cars  fifty  minutes  to  convey  passengers  from  One  Hun- 
dred and  Twenty-ninth  Street  to  Twenty-third  Street,  and  nearly  an 
hour  and  a  half  to  the  City  Hall.  All  this  was  soon  changed  when  the 
swift  trains  began  to  thunder  over  head,  and  reduced  the  time  from 
utmost  Harlem  to  the  Battery  to  only  three-quarters  of  an  hour.  The 
alternative  to  the  horse-cars  before  that  were  the  steamboats  leaving 
Harlem  at  the  foot  of  One  Hundred  and  Thirtieth  Street  at  frequent 
intervals  throughout  the  day.  There  was  a  whole  "  Sylvan  "  family 
of  them,  the  Sylvan  Grove,  and  Glen,  and  Dell,  and  others,  some  of 


458 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


which  were  quite  fast  boats.  A  few  of  the  trips  were  "  express."  when 
no  stops  were  made  between  Harlem  and  Peck  Slip.  By  this  means 
business  men  could  reach  down-town  offices  in  about  half  an  hour's 
time,  or  more,  according  to  their  distance  from  Peck  Slip.  The  trip 
was  a  grateful  relief  after  the  care  and  confinement  of  business  in  the 
evening,  and  a  bracing  preparation  for  the  day's  duties  in  the  morn- 
ing. But  the  "  L  "  roads  were  a  little  more  expeditious,  and  did  not 
make  it  very  essential  as  to  the  precise  minute  one  should  start  from 
home;  and  so  this  pleasing  and  wholesome  steamboat  service  fell  into 
disuse  and  was  abandoned. 

The  earliest  attempt  at  an  elevated  railroad  to  run  through  the 
streets  of  New  York,  was  the  <  Sreenwich  Street  Road,  running  on  one 
side  of  Greenwich  Street  from  the  Battery  to  Thirtieth  Street  and 
Ninth  Avenue.  The  section  between  the  Battery  and  Cortlandt  Street 
was  opened  to  the  public  in  July,  18GT.  The  track  was  laid  on  solid 
beams  of  iron  of  the  form  used  ordinarily  in  buildings,  and  evidently 
not  as  strong  as  the  open-work  that  makes  the  trusses  of  the  later 
structures.  At  any  rate  there  was  a  break  down  at  one  of  the  street 
crossings  where  the  spans  were  necessarily  longer,  and  no  more  was 
heard  of  the  Greenwich  road  or  any  other  for  some  years.  There  was 
some  hesitation  too  as  to  what  mode  of  propulsion  to  adopt.  At  first 
a  cable  was  used,  and  later  small  locomotives.  But  neither  gave  satis- 
faction. In  1875  the  first  Rapid  Transit  Commission  was  appointed 
as  the  result  of  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  and  after  long  deliberation, 
considering  various  proposed  methods,  the  Commission  decided  in 
December  that  elevated  roads  were  the  most  practicable.  Of  course 
the  questions  of  noise  and  of  the  disfiguring  of  the  streets  were  raised 
in  objection.  One  plan  proposed  to  build  the  structure  between  the 
blocks,  through  people's  back-yards;  but  finally  it  was  resolved  to  sac- 
rifice the  looks  of  the  streets  for  the  sake  of  the  great  beuefit  to  be  de- 
rived from  rapid  transit.  Two  companies  were  chartered,  the  Gilbert 
to  construct  railways  on  the  West  side,  and  the  New  York  on 
the  East  side.  The  Gilbert  Company  became  the  Manhattan,  and  in 
1879  the  roads  all  came  under  one  management.  Cyrus  W.  Field  pur- 
chased a  controlling  interest  in  the  New  York  <  5ompany,  and  applying 
to  this  new  enterprise  that  energy  which  had  secured  to  the  world 
the  Atlantic  Cable,  the  work  was  rapidly  and  efficiently  pushed  for- 
ward. Some  years  later,  by  one  of  those  inevitable  financial  fluctua- 
tions attendant  upon  successful  enterprises,  the  price  of  elevated  rail- 
way stock  went  down  to  a  ruinously  low  figure.  At  this  juncture  Mr. 
Jay  Gould  bought  enough  of  Mr.  Field's  shares  to  save  him  from  utter 
ruin.  Since  that  time  Mr.  Gould,  and  after  his  death,  his  sons,  have 
retained  control  of  all  the  elevated  railways  in  the  city. 

Work  was  carried  on  quite  simultaneously  on  both  sides  of  t  he  city. 
On  June  5,  1878,  the  Sixth  Avenue  road  was  opened  from  Elector 
Street  to  Central  Park;  on  August  20.  1878,  the  Third  Avenue  road, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


from  the  Battery  to  Forty-second  Street.  In  the  summer  of  L879,  one 
arriving  in  the  city  by  one  of  the  Jersey  ferries,  still  had  to  walk  all 
the  way  to  Chatham  Square,  or  cross  Broadway  to  Fulton  Street  and 
Pearl,  to  get  the  East  side  elevated  train;  and  at  Eighty-ninth  Street 
he  wronld  have  to  descend  to  the  street  and  take  a  horse-car  further  to 
Harlem.  In  1SS0  the  roads  were  completed  and  trains  ran  to  Harlem 
along  all  the  avenues,  Second,  Third,  Sixth,  and  Ninth.  Thus  the 
Rapid  Transit  problem  seemed  to  be  solved;  Harlem  was  brought 
near;  a  city  extending  over  Manhattan  Island  made  compact  as  in  the 
days  of  small  distances.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  passengers  were 
daily  carried  back  and  forth  from  home  to  business.  But  the  problem 
thus  working  raised  a  still  larger  one  for  itself.  In  later  years 
the  cable-cars  and 
electric  trolly- 
cars  have  come  to 
aid  in  the  increas- 
ing need  for  rapid 
t  r  a  n  s  p  o  rtatiou. 
Still  heads  are 
bent  in  anxious 
study  to  determine 
what  shall  be  done 
to  keep  the  transit 
once  rapid  from 
becoming  too 
slow  ;  what  new 
methods  shall  be 
applied  to  reduce 
the  strain  upon 
the  older. 

It  was  now  that 
a  change  came 
over  the  appear- 
ance of  Harlem, 
method  of  domestic  existence  had  been  introduced  into  the  city. 
The  Parisian  flat  had  caught  the  fancy  of  the  people  and  met 
at  once  the  necessities  created  by  the  excessive  rents  of  houses. 
In  1865  the  system  had  already  been  put  into  operation  down 
towrn,  by  dividing  the  older  style  of  houses  in  an  extempore  and 
often  inconvenient  manner  into  "  floors,"  for  the  separate  occu- 
pancy of  different  families.  But  Harlem,  where  new  houses 
could  be  put  up  adapted  from  the  beginning  to  this  new  style  of  liv- 
ing, became  very  soon  the  paradise  of  "  flats."  When,  therefore,  the 
"  L  "  Roads  were  making  this  section  so  convenient  to  business,  these 
"  flat  "  houses  filled  up  the  vacant  spaces  every  where  visible  before, 
until  soon  they  were  no  more.   Traveling  on  the  east  side  we  perceive 


too 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


now  no  break  bet  ween  New  York  proper  and  Yorkville,  or  between 
Yorkville  and  Harlem.  One  solid  succession  of  cheap  apartment- 
houses  greets  the  eye  on  Third,  and  Second,  and  even  First  Avenues. 
And  on  the  west  side,  from  Fifty-ninth  Street,  along  Columbus  (or 
Ninth)  Avenue,  to  One  Hundred  and  Tenth  Street  and  along  Eighth 
Avenue  nearly  to  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-fifth  Street,  we  see  one 
series  of  the  same  inevitable,  uninteresting  apartment-houses.  Two 
immense  cara vanseries  usually  occupy  a  whole  block,  on  either  side, 
with  perhaps  a  little  alleyway  between.  At  the  same  time  one  gets 
glimpses  of  rows  of  dwellings  in  the  side  streets,  intended  for  single 
families,  and  with  some  pretensions  to  elegance,  but  again  monoto- 
nously alike,  or  with  attempts  at  variety  even  more  painful, sometimes 
effected  by  placing  houses  of  dark  and  light  stone  by  the  side  of  each 
other  in  regular  alternation,  so  that  a  rapid  passage  in  the  elevated 
trains  gives  one  the  impression  that  the  fronts  of  the  buildings  are 
striped. 

While  Harlem  still  had  a  semblance  of  its  earlier  rural  self,  and 
was  not  yet  closely  articulated  by  bricks  and  blocks  and  elevated 
trains  to  the  rest  of  t he  city,  it  is  somewhat  surprising  that  even  then 
the  city  felt  the  confinement  of  its  insular  position  and  aspired  to 
larger  things.  It  was  as  early  as  1873  that,  by  an  act  of  (he  Legisla- 
ture as  usual,  New  York  was  permitted  to  cross  the  Harlem  River, 
and  plant  its  banners  over  a  large  slice  of  Westchester  County.  We 
cannol  but  regard  this  as  an  (went  worthy  of  special  note.  It  is  al- 
most incredible  that  from  the  earliest  days,  even  when  New  Amster- 
dam received  incorporation  as  a  city  in  1653,  the  whole  of  .Manhattan 
Island  should  have  been  regarded  as  embraced  in  it.  We  can  never 
sufficiently  appreciate  the  audacity  of  the  Commission  which,  in  1S07. 
coolly  Laid  out  a  system  of  streets,  covering  nearly  the  entire  surface 
of  the  island.  Bu1  the  dream  that  was  not  expected  in  L807  t«»  be  re- 
alized for  centuries,  was  already  Hearing  that  realization  at  the  end 
of  six  and  a  half  decades.  Therefore  room  must  be  sought  off  the 
island,  long  before  all  t  he  room  upon  it  was  fully  occupied.  And  it  is 
again  deserving  of  remark  that  as  much  territory  was  added  to  the 
former  area  as  had  been  from  time  immemorial  considered  the  proper 
modicum  for  the  expansion  of  the  infant  town.  Manhattan  Island 
was  estimated  to  contain  fourteen  thousand  acres  of  Land;  t  he  pari  of 
Westchester  now  annexed  amounted  to  thirteen  thousand  acres. 
This  territory  was  now  divided  into  the  Twenty-third  and  Twenty- 
fourth  Wards,  which,  like  the  Western  States  as  compared  with  the 
Eastern,  thus  became,  in  comparison  with  the  twenty-two  down  town 
wards  Covering  only  a  thousand  more  acres,  the  wards  of  "  magnifi- 
cent distances." 

The  city  by  its  passage  across  the  Harlem  River  embraced  within 
its  territory  some  choice  bits  of  rural  scenery  not  only,  but  many 
places  w  ith  "  a  local  habitation  and  a  name  "  full  of  historic  and  other 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


461 


interest.  There  was  Kingsbridge  with  iis  Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek,  and 
its  lofty  Spuyten  Duyvil  Bluff,  looking  far  down  the  river,  and  mak- 
ing a  half-successful  attempt  to  rival  the  height  of  the  Palisades. 
What  stories  of  romantic  adventure  cluster  about  the  settlement 
here!  The  trumpet  of  Anthony  van  Corlaer  is  heard  with  despairing 
blast  sounding  above  the  roar  of  the  rushing  tide,  as  the  devil  he  was 
bound  to  spite  got  hold  of  him  amid  the  seething  waters.  Here 
Governor  Clinton  held  post  with  his  brigade,  to  keep  English  and  cow 
boys  from  crossing  to  Manhattan.  Here  a  bold  dash  was  made 
against  the  British  defenders  about  the  same  time  that  Light  Horse 
Harry  Lee  surprised  Paulus  Hook.  Through  Kingsbridge  clattered 
the  little  cavalcade  of  six,  in  1750,  w  hen  Washington  rode  forth  from 
New  York  to  Boston.  Here  Adams  was  met  when  he  came  to  the  city 
as  Vice-President,  and  to  Kingsbridge  was  Lafayette  escorted  and 
here  cordial  adieus  spoken  by  him  to  the  dignitaries  of  the  city  who 
had  so  handsomelv  entertained  him  in  1S24.  Next  to  Kintisbridge 
lay  the  village  or  manor  of  Fordham,  where  the  Huguenots  settled 
and  founded  a  church  even  before  1700.  And  up  and  dow  n  its  steep 
and  w  inding  roads  poor  Poe  was  wont  to  wander,  perhaps  not  always 
with  steady  feet,  at  his  wits'  end  how  to  provide  the  necessaries  of  life 
for  his  sick  wife,  lying  up  there  in  that  miserable  little  cottage  by  the 
side  of  the  Kingsbridge  Load,  where  it  stood  until  lately.  There  it 
stands  yet,  a  little  distance  removed  from  its  original  position,  pre- 
served for  the  sake  of  the  weird  genius  that  w  rote  the  "  Kaven."  Was 
it  as  early  as  this,  or  some  years  later,  that  the  horse-cars  of  the 
"  huckleberry  road  "  pursued  their  devious  and  deliberate  way  to 
Fordham  from  the  old  wooden  Harlem  toll-bridge?  But  this  brings 
us  to  Morrisania,  named  after  the  famous  Morris  family,  which  gave 
a  Chief  Justice  to  New  York  Province,  and  a  Mayor  to  New  York  (it,  . 
and  to  the  whole  country  in  the  days  when  patriotism  cost  something, 
the  many-sided  Gouverneur  Morris,  statesman,  orator,  financier,  dip- 
lomat, engineer,  and  finally  a  dignified  and  retired  country  gentle- 
man. A  delicious  story  is  told  of  him  by  "  Felix  Oldboy  "  in  connec- 
tion with  the  founding  of  Mott  Haven,  now  also  become  a  part  of  the 
growing  city.  When  the  elder  Jordan  L.  Mott  had  purchased  the 
ground  for  his  great  foundry  plant,  as  he  received  the  deeds  from  the 
hands  of  the  venerable  Gouverneur  Morris,  he  asked  w  hether  he 
might  call  that  portion  of  the  "  Patroonship  "  after  himself,  "Mott 
Haven."  Morris  was  blunt  in  his  older  days  as  he  was  outspoken  and 
fearless  in  his  younger,  and  replied,  "  Yes,  and  for  aught  I  care  you 
may  change  the  name  of  the  Harlem  River  to  the  Jordan,  and  dip  into 
it  as  often  as  you  want  to."  As  Mott  was  not  afflicted  with  the  Syrian 
chieftain's  leprosy  he  did  not  follow  the  latter  part  of  this  recommen- 
dation, nor  change  the  name  of  the  Harlem.  But  he  dug  a  canal 
which  has  become  a  sad  nuisance  since,  extending  a  good  way  up  be- 
yond One  Hundred  and  Thirty-eighth  Street.    The  same  authority 


462 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


informs  us  that  Morris  oven  at  his  great  age  was  vigorous  at  handling 
a  scythe  or  sickle,  and  gave  his  men  a  hard  i  ussle  to  keep  ap  wit  h  him 
at  harvesting,  in  which  bucolic  occupation  the  retired  statesman 
would  regularly  engage  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  aristocratic 
relatives.  The  noble  old  mansion  of  the  .Morrises  stood  near  tin- 
water's  edge,  about  where  the  Harlem  and  East  Rivera  joined  their 
waters.  The  first  house  erected  in  what  was  the  village  of  Morrisania 
proper,  was  that  of  a  Mr.  Cauldwell.  in  1848.  and  a  "  Union  '*  Church 
was  organized  the  next  year.  Mott  Haven  was  soon  populated  by  Mr. 
Mott's  prosperous  operatives  who  built  scores  of  cosy  little  homes  in 


HARLEM  RIVER  IMPROVEMENTS — LOOKING  WEST  FROM  KINGSBRID6E  ROAD. 


the  vicinity  of  I  he  "  works  ";  and  to  be  sure  thai  the  name  might  stick 
to  his  manorial  and  industrial  possessions  Mr.  Mott  put  up  a  sign- 
board that  could  be  seen  across  the  river  with  the  legend  "Mott 
Haven  '*  inscribed  thereon,  and  secured  for  it  also  Covernment  recog- 
nition as  a  post  office  station.  It  will  make  the  denizens  of  Morris- 
ania weep  or  smile  according  to  their  predilections  to  be  reminded  of 
the  fact  thai  the  place  was  intended  to  be  a  strictly  temperance  vil- 
lage; not  only  gin  and  whisky  and  all  thai  ilk  to  be  banished  there- 
from, but  also  l  lie  milder  intoxicants,  beer  and  ale.  The  lowering  and 
multitudinous  breweries  of  the  district  ;it  the  present  time  are  a  sad 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


4<;:; 


or  an  amusing  commentary  upon  these  laudable  designs.    Man  pro- 
poses, and  some  other  power  disposes:  what  the  power  in  this  ease 
can  have  been,  Ave  leave  to  the  decision  of  the  reader.   Port  Morris  at 
the  extreme  boundary  line  toward  the  Sound  or  East  River,  then  had 
its  foundry,  as  to-day  it  has  that  and  several  other  imposing  indus- 
trial hives,  to  be  seen  far  and  wide  along  the  shores  of  the  broad 
waters  whereon  it  abuts.   Little  was  it  thought  in  1873,  that  the  vil- 
lages of  College  Point,  and  Flushing,  and  Astoria,  all  within  view 
at  Port  Morris,  with  Piker's,  and  Berrian,  and  North  and  South 
Brother  Islands,  would  all  oue  day  be  embraced  within  the  sweep  of 
those  city  limits  which  had  just  brought  this  then  remote  territory 
into  New  York.   But  further  than  Port  Morris  lay  the  village  of  Wes1 
Farms,  and  that  too  with  all  its  memories  of  the  past  became  a  legiti- 
mate part  of  New  York  City  and  its  history.    Here  the  De  Lancey's 
had  their  country  seat;  and  hot  were  the  controversies  on  election  day 
in  Westchester  County  between  the  Morrises  and  the  De  Lanceys, 
made  irreconcilable  antagonists  and  rivals  by  the  arbitrary  favors  or 
disfavors  of  Governor  Cosby,  who  put  down  one  (Lewis  Morris  from 
the  bench  of  the  Chief  Justice)  and  lifted  up  another  (James  De  Lan- 
cey)  without  consulting  anybody  but  his  own  will  and  his  own  pocket, 
as  by  this  means  he  hoped  to  get  away  a  few  thousand  pounds  of  back 
salary  from  stanch  old  Councillor  Rip  Van  Dam,  who  had  been 
Acting-Governor  for  over  a  year.    Here  at  West  Farms  too  a  deed 
was  done  reflecting  honor  upon  a  name  that  needs  the  mention  of  all 
the  honorable  acts  ever  performed  by  its  bearer  to  counterbalance  the 
one  dark  deed  that  ruined  him.   Aaron  Burr  led  a  daring  assault  on 
a  block-house — built  here  by  Oliver  De  Lancey,  the  brother  of  the 
Chief  Justice  and  a  rabid  Tory;  the  very  audacity  and  rapidity  of  the 
maneuver  causing  the  garrison  to  surrender  without  a  shot  in  its 
OAvn  defense.    After  1873,  and  in  the  process  of  making  this  rustic 
historic  retreat  a  part  of  the  city,  sad  havoc  was  made  of  roads  and 
houses,  great  or  small.   The  horse-car,  soon  after  the  annexation,  and 
the  trolley  now,  have  brought  it  into  communication  with  Harlem 
Bridge,  and  the  elevated  road  thunders  past  at  no  great  distance. 
Ten  years  ago  hills  half  cut  away,  houses  left  absurdly  high  and  dry 
that  were  once  even  with  the  road,  or  placed  on  piles  with  the  very 
ground  gone  from  under,  gave  evidence  of  the  transition  still  incom- 
plete.   But  even  then,  or  even  now,  nooks  may  be  found  where  pris- 
tine nature  still  revels  in  her  unsullied  beauty,  and  human  beings 
dwell  in  rustic  retirement,  all  unconscious  of  the  fact  that  they  are 
part  of  a  rumbling,  rattling,  thunderous  mart  of  industry  and  com- 
merce. Thus  did  New  York  take  part  of  Westchester;  and  will  she  let 
die  these  names  that  are  dear  to  the  antiquarian,  and  to  the  original 
villagers?  The  railroads  have  partly  taken  care  that  she  will  not.  For 
Mott  Haven  and  Melrose,  and  Fordham  and  Morrisania,  and  Kings- 
bridge  and  Spuyten  Duvvil  and  all.  look  kindly  down  upon  us  at  every 


464 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


stage,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  these  will  soon  depart  from  their  time 
tables  or  their  stations. 

The  city  having  crossed  the  Harlem  River,  was  bound  to  keep 
bridges  in  its  rear.    It  was  not  doing  anything  like  crossing  the 
Rubicon,  but  onthe  other  hand  was  greatly  interested  in  keeping 
up  the  means  of  crossing  back  and  forth  to  the  fullest  measure.  The 
oldest  bridge  by  far  of  course  is  Kingsbridge,  which  superseded  the 
ferry  there  in  the  days  of  the  earliest  Van  Cortlandts.    For  a  long 
time  this  remained  the  only  means  of  crossing  to  the  mainland,  and 
Washington  in  17r>(>,  as  well  as  Lafayette  in  1S24.  on  their  way  to 
Boston,  had  to  make  their  journey  around  to  this  extremity  of  the 
island.    Before  the  middle  of  the  century,  however,  a  toll  bridge  had 
been  built  across  to  Morrisania  or  Mott  Haven  from  the  end  of  Third 
Avenue.   It  was  a  wooden  affair,  none  of  the  strongest  or  safest.  It 
could  not  have  been  very  old  in  1846,  yet  even  then  people  shivered  a 
little  in  going  across,  and  eyewitnesses  describe  it  as  something  of 
"  a  ruin,  moss-grown  and  shaky."    Some  years  before  the  annexation 
this  bridge  was  replaced  by  a  tine  iron  drawbridge,  turned  by  a  steam 
engine,  and  presenting  three  great  arches  to  the  view  as  one  came  up 
or  down  the  river,  one  on  either  side  supporting  the  approach,  and 
the  larger  central  one  revolving  on  a  pier  to  allow  the  passage 
of  ships.    But  this  has  had  a  shorter  life  than  its  wooden  predecessor, 
for  at  the  present  day  it  is  no  more  and  for  a  year  or  two  a  splen- 
did structure  has  been  under  way.  allowing  a  greater  distance  be- 
tween its  bottom  and  tide  water.    For  the  same  reason  the  Fourth 
Avenue  Railroad  Bridge  has  been  greatly  raised.    At  Second  Avenue 
a  lofty  bridge  carries  the  trains  of  the  elevated  roads  across  the  river. 
At  .Madison  Avenue  foot  passengers  and  horse-cars  cross  over  by  a 
bridge  which  has  curved  approaches,  and  leads  directly  from  the  ave- 
nue running  south  and  north  into  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-eighth 
Street   running  east  and  west.     For  many  years  Macomb's  Dam 
Bridge  has  been  a  familiar  object .    It  was  erected  in  L861,  high  above 
the  river,  with  wooden  trestle-work,  and  wooden  supports  for  the  ap- 
proaches   Often  has  its  name  led  the  innocent  into  dangerous  sem- 
blance to  profanity;  but  the  designation   arose  simply  enough, 
(leneral  .Macomb  once  undertook  to  throw  a  dam  across  the  Harlem 
at  this  point;  but  the  dwellers  along  the  lower  shores  of  the  river 
could  not  endure  this  desecration,  which  made  a  mere  mud  creek  of 
the  stream  by  their  doors.    So  they  came  up  in  a  body  and  smashed 
the  dam.  but  could  not  break  the  name  away  from  the  locality.  In 
deference  to  delicate  ears,  however,  the  city  fathers  have  tried  (largely 
in  vain)  to  christen  the  bridge  with  the  name  "  Central."    Struck  with 
the  fever  for  improvement,  the  wooden  structure  was  replaced  only 
recently  by  a  splendid  bridge  of  iron,  graceful  and  strong,  having  a 
length  of  1.1)20  feet  ami  width  of  .~>0  feet.    It  was  begun  in  t892  and 
opened  to  the  public  on  Mav  1.  L895.    Its  cost  was  two  millions  of  dol- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


405 


lars.  It  serves  t<>  connect  Sixth,  Seventh,  and  Eighth  Avenues,  a1  their 
termini,  with  the  annexed  district;  while  from  Amsterdam  (Tenth) 
and  St.  Nicholas  Avenues  comes  down  n  tremendous  viaduct  the  full 
width  of  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-fifth  Street,  directly  to  the  bridge, 
high  over  the  tracks  of  the  Eighth  Avenue  Elevated  Railway.  A 
bridge  conveys  trains  from  the  latter  structure  over  the  river,  run- 
ning there  on  the  surface  to  various  points  in  the  annexed  parts,  and 
np  to  Yonkers  and  beyond  Tarrytown.  Next  in  the  series  comes  the 
noble  old  aqueduct  long  known  as  High  Bridge,  erected  at  the  firsl  con- 
struction of  the  Croton  Water  system  in  1842.   And  still  above,  at  but 


THE  CANAL  THROUGH    DYCKMAN   MEADOWS  AND  THE  ROCKS. 


a  short  distance,  is  seen  the  last  and  noblest  struct  are  of  all,  the 
wonderful  Washington  Bridge.  Its  lofty  roadway,  150  feet  above  tide 
water,  leads  from  One  Hundred  and  Eighty-first  Street  and  Amster- 
dam (Tenth)  Avenue  straight  across  to  Fordham  Heights.  It  is  2,400 
feet  long  and  SO  feet  wide,  and  built  of  iron,  steel,  and  stone.  It  rests 
mainly  upon  two  immense  arches  of  steel,  each  with  a  span  of  510 
feet,  and  rising  135  feet  above  high  water  mark  at  their  center.  The 
approach  on  the  west  side  rests  on  four  arches  of  granite  faced  with 
dressed  stone,  and  that  on  the  Fordham  side  on  three  similar  arches. 
It  was  completed  in  1889,  but  not  formally  opened  to  the  public  till 
the  next  year. 


466 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


The  Harlem  having  thus  become  a  stream  passing  through  the 
heart  of  New  York,  it  was  but  natural  that  something  more  should  be 
made  of  it  than  it  was  in  its  previous  condition.  It  is  of  course  called 
a  river  only  by  courtesy,  the  tides  rising  and  falling  in  it  like  an  arm 
of  the  sea.  It  is  simply  a  depression  separating,  with  Spuyten  Duy- 
vil  Creek.  Manhattan  Island  from  the  mainland,  and  into  this  depres- 
sion the  waters  of  the  Hudson  River  and  of  the  Long  Island  Sound 
(here  also  called  by  courtesy  East  River)  were  bound  to  flow.  A  chan- 
nel of  good  depth  ran  through  the  center,  but  at  low  tide  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  "  River  "  was  converted  into  mud  tints.  This  must 
now  all  be  touched  and  altered  into  better  shape  by  the  hand  of  im- 
provement. The  shores  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  remain  in  their  pris- 
tine condition,  with  the  waters  alternately  within  reach  and  inac- 
cessible with  the  changes  of  the  tide.  Docks  and  wharves  were  built 
out  upon  the  mud  foundations  so  that  deep  water  might  always  be 
at  hand  for  traffic.  The  rustic  stream  principally  used  for  pleasure 
boating  was  dignified  with  the  character  of  a  waterway  of  commerce, 
and  therefore  the  bridges  that  were  obstructing  navigation  must  be 
reared  upon  loftier  piers,  cost  what  it  may.  There  has  even  been 
some  talk  of  removing  the  fine  High  Bridge,  if  its  solid  piers  should 
interfere  too  much  with  shipping.  Thus  the  deepening  and  the  dock- 
ing of  the  Harlem  River  and  its  shores  has  been  going  on  for  some 
time.  But  to  complete  its  service  as  a  highway  to  commerce,  other 
work  needed  to  be  done.  In  1876  the  Legislature  of  the  State  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  improvements  by  passing  an  act  giving  permis- 
sion to  the  United  States  Government  to  acquire  the  right  of  way 
necessary  to  enable  it  to  carry  out  the  plan  of  making  a  ship  canal  of 
the  River,  reaching  from  Long  Island  Sound  to  the  Hudson.  The 
course  of  this  canal  is  from  the  East,  through  the  Harlem  River,  to  a 
point  near  Two  Hundred  and  Twentieth  Street.  Here  are  the  Dyck- 
man  Meadows,  a  depression  of  the  land  immediately  north  of  the  lofty 
heights  which  make  necessary  and  possible  the  exalted  roadway  of 
Washington  Bridge.  Striking  into  this  at  first  easy  pathway,  the 
canal  was  to  be  cut  subsequently  through  a  barrier  of  white  rock  in 
a  curved  line  until  it  reached  Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek.  The  whole  canal 
is  seven  miles  long,  and  from  eight  to  nine  feet  deep  throughout  its 
entire  extent.  A  year  or  two  ago  the  connection  between  the  Harlem 
and  Spuyten  Duyvil  was  completed,  and  the  opening  celebrated  with 
appropriate  ceremonies,  but  the  entire  work  of  ''the  Harlem  River 
Improvements."  will  yet  require  some  years  for  its  accomplishment. 

July  4.  1876,  the  Centennial  Fourth,  was  n  day  not  to  be  lightly 
passed  over  by  the  citizens  of  New  York.  The  celebration  was  among 
the  most  notable  of  all  those  that  took  place  in  1  he  varionscities  of  the 
land.  ( )n  the  evening  of  the  .'hi  the  city  was  made  brilliant  with  illumi- 
nations, repeated  on  the  next  evening  with  the  addition  of  fireworks. 
Union  Square  was  made  t  he  center  of  attraction.  Broadway  w  as  a  sea 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


467 


of  fire  from  the  Square  all  the  way  down  to  Dey  Street.  An  electric 
apparatus  on  one  of  the  great  telegraph  buildings  was  made  to  pour  a 
flood  of  light  over  the  whole  length  of  the  thoroughfare,  while  hotels, 
stores,  banks,  and  such  private  residences  as  were  then  still  upon  it, 
vied  with  each  other  in  the  splendor  of  decorations  and  illuminations. 
The  City  Hall,  the  newspaper  offices  in  its  vicinity,  the  banks  and 
other  business  concerns,  were  ablaze  with  devices  in  lights  and  colors. 
All  through  the  day  church  bells  rang,  chimes  played  National  airs, 
and  Castle  William  fired  a  hundred  guns.  A  monster  procession 
marched  through  the  streets,  and  gathered  uoon  the  plaza  at  Union 


UNION  SQUARE  ON  THE  EVENING  OF  JULY  4,  1876. 


Square.  Festoons  of  bright  lamps  were  strung  all  around  the  great 
space,  making  the  scene  one  of  unparalleled  beauty  and  brilliancy.  A 
platform  had  been  erected  whereupon  were  placed  one  thousand 
singers,  members  of  German  Saenger  Bunds.  The  bands  that  had 
marched  with  the  procession  assembled,  and  took  up  a  position  be- 
tween the  grand  stand  and  the  singers'  stand.  Ad  incalculable  mul- 
titude surrounded  in  irregular  mass  these  more  regular  preparations, 
while  thousands  of  lights  and  flashing  fireworks  constantly  illumi- 
nated the  whole  immense  and  inspiring  group.  Enthusiasm  was 
raised  repeatedly  to  the  highest  pitch  by  the  splendid  effect  of  such  a 
great  chorus  of  voices,  rendering  patriotic  National  airs,  or  stirring 


46S 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


passages  from  the  great  operas.  At  the  same  time  the  unprecedented 
number  of  pieces  playing  together,  made  the  music  of  the  bands 
vasi  1  v  more  exciting  t  han  usual.  Above  i  he  crowds  could  be  seen  the 
director  of  the  bauds  and  of  the  singers  swinging  his  baton  from  a 
small  inclosure  adorned  with  flags,  and  putting  life  and  spirit  into 
the  extraordinary  performance.  Hefore  and  after  the  musical  exer- 
cises the  sky  was  made  lurid  with  bombs  and  rockets,  and  set  pieces 
of  wonderful  design  and  still  more  startling  operation. 

During  that  same  summer  New  York  was  interested  in  the  presi- 
dential canvass,  because  one  of  the  candidates  was  Samuel  J.  Tilden, 
Governor  of  the  State,  and  recently  identified  with  the  successful  as- 
sault upon  the  Tweed  Ring.  The  result  of  1  he  elect  ion  in  the  autumn 
was  Long  doubtful.  At  first  the  Tribune  came  ouf  conceding  the  elec- 
tion of  Tilden  over  Hayes.  Of  all  the  papers  the  Times  alone  con- 
tended that  Tilden  was  not  elected,  and  gradually  figures  began  to 
confirm  its  rather  unique  position.  By  its  publications  and  figures 
posted  in  front  of  the  old  building  on  Printing  House  Square,  it 
gathered  from  night  to  night  an  excited  crowd.  In  the  next  Presi- 
dential campaign,  in  L880,  there  was  again  a  personal  interest  for  the 
city,  since  the  nominee  for  Vice-President  on  the  Republican  side,  was 

<  '1  iest or  A.  Arthur,  one  of  her  residents.  Mr.  Arthur  had  received  the 
nomination  not  so  much  as  a  reward  of  merit,  although  he  proved  his 
merit  to  be  of  the  highest  quality  in  the  time  of  trial  soon  to  come. 
It  was  rather  as  an  ad  of  vengeance  againsl  President  Hayes,  and  as 
a  sort  of  compensation  to  a  disappointed  politician  of  New  York.  In 
1SSI)  Senator  Conkling  was  the  champion  of  Grant  for  a  third  term. 
He  could  not  carry  t  he  Convent  ion  with  him,  however,  and  dames  A. 

<  iarfield  was  taken  as  a  "  dark  horse  "  from  among  a  number  of  more 
prominent  candidates  neither  of  whom  could  unite  the  Convention,  as 
had  happened  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Hayes  four  years  before.  Senator 
Conkling's  wrath  was  then  appeased  by  making  Arthur  of  New  York 
the  nominee  for  Vice-President,  which  was  the  more  calculated  to 
gratify  Conkling,  because  in  the  face  of  his  remonstrances  .Mr.  Hayes 
had  removed  Mr.  Arthur  from  the  position  of  Collector  of  the 
Pott  of  New  York,  in  1ST".  Garfield  when  President  also  had 
occasion  to  antagonize  the  exacting  and  overbearing  Senator 
from  New  York,  and  sad  quarrels  were  rending  asunder  the  Re- 
publican party,  when,  on  July  2.  1SS1.  the  assassin's  pistol  shuck 
down  the  President.  Every  thought  was  now  bent  on  but  one  hope 
and  desire,  thai  his  life  might  be  spared,  burying  all  feelings  of  politi- 
cal or  party  antagonism.  On  September  lit  the  country  knew  that  its 
prayers  could  not  be  granted,  and  that  the  bullet  fired  on  July  2  had 
finally  accomplished  its  fatal  errand.  Garfield  breathed  his  last  late 
in  t  he  day.  and  in  t  he  small  hours  of  September  20,  L881,  a  committee 
of  gentlemen  were  at  a  house  in  Lexington  Avenue,  administering  the 
oath  as  President  of  the  United  States  to  Chester  A.  Arthur.  His 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


469 


position  had  been  a  delicate  one  all  through  that  trying  summer,  but 
he  had  borne  himself  with  tact  and  prudence  and  a  noble  self- 
restraint.  And  now  he  entered  upon  a  career  as  Chief  Magistrate  of 
the  nation  which  has  reflected  the  greatest  credit  upon  himself,  and 
may  rightly  be  regarded  as  a  source  of  honest  pride  to  the  city  that 
owned  him  as  one  of  her  sons. 

Centennial  celebrations  of  events  occurring  during  the  Revolution 
had  become  pretty  nearly  exhausted;  but  there  was  a  last  one  which 
it  became  New  York  particularly  and  alone  to  remember  and  signal- 
ize. November  25,  1883,  would  be  the  one  hjundreth  anniversary  of 
the  evacuation  of  the  city  by  the  British.  From  year  to  year  Evacua- 
tion Day  had  been  honored  as  a  holiday,  when  the  militia  marched 
through  the  streets,  to  the  unfailing  delight  of  the  schoolboys,  who 
Avere  not  required  on  that  day  to  pursue  the  thorny  road  to  learning. 
Patriotic  societies  had  their  banquets, 
and  orators  set  forth  the  lessons  of  the 
memorial.  It  was  not  to  be  supposed 
that  the  centennial  of  such  a  day  would 
be  passed  by  without  special  celebra- 
tion. The  25th  of  November  failing  on 
a  Sunday.  Monday,  the  26th,  was  set 
apart  for  the  great  event.  President 
Arthur  came  from  Washington,  and 
Governor  Cleveland  from  Albany,  and 
the  Governors  of  the  thirteen  original 
States  were  also  invited,  many  of  whom 
accepted.  A  feature  of  the  occasion 
was  a  parade  of  steamers  on  the  sur- 
rounding waters,  which  was  a  success 
as  to  miles  of  length,  but  not  as  to  regu- 
larity or  beauty  of  movements,  the  tug-  IfySo-e^t^MxMJit 
boats  especially  acting  like  young,  un-  (_)  \) 

broken  colts,  continually  escaping  from 

the  bounds.  Trinity  chimes  rang  out  patriotic  tunes  at  sunrise, 
at  noon,  and  at  sunset.  The  New  York  Tribune  published  a 
rude,  but  clear,  map  of  New  York  as  it  was  in  1783,  and  all  the 
morning  papers  contained  long  and  careful  accounts  of  the  event 
commemorated.  At  ten  o'clock  the  land  parade  began  the  march 
at  Fifty-seventh  Street,  down  Fifth  Avenue  to  Fourteenth  Street, 
to  Broadway,  and  so  down  to  Bowling  Green,  where  it  was  dis- 
banded. Forty  thousand  men  were  in  line,  detachments  of  troops 
from  other  States  having  accompanied  the  Governors  on  their 
visit  to  the  city  to  participate  in  the  parade.  About  the  time 
the  march  began  the  rain  commenced  to  pour  down  and  kept  up 
the  process  until  midnight,  discouraging  many  of  the  spectators 
and  dimming  the  glory  of  the  soldiery  to  a  serious  extent.    In  the 


470 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


evening  banquets  aud  illuminations  continued  the  celebration.  The 
Chamber  of  Commerce  gave  a  banquet  in  honor  of  the  day  and  of  the 
President,  who  made  a  speech,  as  did  also  lienry  Ward  Beecher  and 
Joseph  II.  Choate.,  At  the  Seventh  Regiment  armory  a  reception  was 
given  to  the  visiting  military.  A  permanent  memorial  of  the  occasion 
was  the  colossal  bronze  statue  of  Washington  erected  on  the  grand 
stone  staircase  in  front  of  the  sub-treasury  in  Wall  Street.  As  early 
as  1880  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  made  arrangements  to  place  such 
a  statue  there,  and  J.  Q.  A.  Ward  was  engaged  to  cast  it.  It  cost 
$35,000,  and  represented  Washington  in  the  act  of  taking  the  oath  as 
President,  his  right  hand  extended  as  if  touching  the  Bible,  his  left 
resting  upon  his  sword  hilt,  just  as  he  stood  at  that  crucial  moment 
in  1789.  The  position  selected  for  the  statue  was  as  near  as  possi- 
ble to  the  actual  spot  where  the  first  President  then  stood,  and  a  slab 
of  the  pavement  of  the  balcony  of  the  old  Federal  Hall  was  happily 
secured,  and  supports  the  bronze  figure.  In  the  pouring  rain  a  goodly 
company  assembled  in  the  vicinity  of  the  sub-treasury  in  the  after- 
noon of  that  same  centennial  celebration.  The  statue  was  unveiled 
by  Governor  Cleveland,  and  accepted  on  behalf  of  the  United  Stales 
by  President  Arthur,  the  oration  being  delivered  by  George  William 
( !urtis. 

The  great  event  of  the  year  1883  was  the  completion  and  opening  of 
the  Brooklyn  Bridge,  on  May  24.  A  ridiculous  fanaticism  raised  the 
objection,  and  some  timid  spirits  were  inclined  to  heed  it  and  change 
the  date,  because  this  happened  to  be  (Jneen  Victoria's  birthday,  the 
thought  of  which  had  not  come  to  the  remotest  degree  into  the  minds 
of  those  who  selected  the  day  for  the  formalities.  It  was  a  source  of 
immense  satisfaction  and  pride  to  the  citizens  of  both  cities  that  this 
great  piece  of  engineering  was  at  last  done,  and  that  its  utility  would 
now  have  an  opportunity  of  vindicating  the  enormous  expense,  rising 
to  s 1 5,000,000.  In  1807  the  first  legislative  steps  were  taken  looking 
to  its  construction,  and  in  March.  1870,  the  first  caisson  to  serve  as  a 
foundation  for  the  Brooklyn  tower  was  sunk  Into  place.  John  A. 
Boebling,  the  constructor  of  the  famous  suspension  bridge  across  the 
Niagara  River,  was  selected  as  engineer,  but  he  soon  lost  his  life  by 
an  accident,  and  his  son,  Washington  A.  Boebling,  was  appointed  to 
carry  out  the  plans.  Steadily  the  work  went  on,  the  people  eagerly 
watching  as  the  towers  rose  to  their  height  of  over  two  hundred  feet 
above  the  water,  and  as  the  first  wire  was  strung  across,  upon  which 
the  five  thousand  or  more  for  each  of  the  four  cables  were  passed 
over.  For  a  long  time  a  footbridge  hung  from  tower  to  tower 
daring  the  venturous  to  test  the  strength  of  their  heads.  Then  the 
supporting  beams  and  trusses  of  the  bridgeway  proper  began  to  ap- 
pear. At  last  it  hung  complete,  a  span  of  L,595  feet  directly  over  the 
river,  the  arch  being  135  feet  above  high  water;  spans  of  1)30  feed 
hanging  between  each  tower  and  the  solid  approaches:  the  latter 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK 


471 


measuring  a  straight 
1,526  feet  on  the  New 
York  side,  and  at  first 
curving  a  distance  of 
971  feet  on  the  Brook- 
lyn side,  but  recently 
m  a  d  e  considerably 
longer.  Thus  a  length 
of  over  a  mile,  or  5,989 
feet,  is  covered  by  this 
gigantic  structure,  a 
marvel  and  a  triumph 
of  engineering  skill  in 
a  hundred  branches. 
Worthy  was  the  occa- 
sion of  its  opening  of 
the  most  enthusiastic 
and  elaborate  celebra- 
tion. The  Brooklyn 
people  gave  up  the  day 
to  it,  as  peculiarly  their 
own,  for  high  festivity. 
President  Arthur  and 
Governor  Cleveland 
were  taken  in  carriages 
from  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel  to  the  bridge, 
preceded  by  a  large 
force  of  police  on  foot 
and  on  horseback,  and 
escorted  by  the 
Seventh  Regiment, 
which  formed  in  front 
of  the  hotel  at  half  past 
eleven  o'clock.  Ar- 
rived at  the  bridge  the 
gallant  Seventh  took 
position  on  the  south 
roadway,  facing  north, 
the  right  wing  resting 
on  the  New  York  tow- 
er. East  of  this  tower 
the  United  States 
troops  and  Brooklyn's 
Twenty-third  R  e  g  i  - 
ment  received  the  dis- 


472 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tinguished  guests  in  military  fashion.  At  niton  all  business  was 
suspended  in  New  York.  Public  buildings  were  hid  in  brighl 
bunting.  The  main  exercises,  literary  and  otherwise,  were  held 
in  the  Brooklyn , terminal,  and  therefore  belong  to  the  history 
of  Brooklyn,  to  be  related  subsequently.  They  were  worthily  pre- 
sided over  by  the  then  youthful  .Mayor  of  that  city,  Seth  Low. 
and  the  celebrated  Brooklyn  divine,  Dr.  Richard  S.  Storrs,  was 
the  orator  of  the  day.  delivering  one  of  his  most  splendid  and 
.scholarly  addresses.  At  night  both  cities  poured  forth  their  mul- 
titudes upon  streets  and  roofs  to  see  the  display  of  fireworks  from  the 
center  of  the  bridge.  It  lasted  exactly  one  hour.  At  eight  o'clock  a 
splendid  bouquet  of  rockets  was  sent  up  from  the  center,  and  at  the 
same  time  fountains  of  gold  and  silver  rain  began  to  play  from  the 
tops  of  the  towers.  Then  came  volleys  of  shells,  stars,  meteors,  fiery 
serpents,  and  rockets  galore.  Set  pieces  of  an  allegorical  nature  were 
also  set  off. 

A  curious  reminiscence  of  the  controversy  started  by  some  small 
minds  as  to  the  date  of  the  opening  may  be  preserved.  It  is  a  humor- 
ous protest  sent  to  one  of  the  daily  papers  on  .May  24  by  an  "  Alarmed 
Protestant  ":  "  Have  the  trustees  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge,"  he  wrote. 
"  offended  the  Irish  by  designating  the  Queen's  birthday  for  the  open- 
ing exercises?  Have  they  offended  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic 
by  not  opening  it  on  Decoration  hay?  Yes.  Put  have  they  not  much 
more  offended  all  Protestants  by  putting  it  on  Corpus  Christi  Day. 
which  this  year  falls  on  May  24.  t  h"  Thursday  of  Trinity  Week?  5Tes. 
This  is  the  true  secret  of  the  matter.  Of  all  the  days  in  the  year  to 
have  selected  that  day.  the  feast  of  Transubstantiation  and  the  Sacri- 
fice of  the  .Mass;  this  is  the  crowning  offense.  Suppose  some  of  them 
say  they  didn't  know  it  was  Corpus  Christi  Day?  Tell  that  to  the 
marines.  Do  the  Irish  say  the  trustees  are  sycophants  of  the  throne? 
I  )oes  t  he  Grand  Army  say  t  hey  are  rebels  at  heart  ?  Let  us  rather  say 
they  are  minions  of  the  papacy,  emissaries  of  Kome.  .Jesuits  in  dis- 
guise! Now  we  know  why  they  imposed  a  tax  on  foot  passengers.  It 
is  for  Peter's  pence.  Now  we  know  w  hat  those  gloomy  crypts  are  for 
under  the  arches  of  the  approaches.  They  are  for  dungeons  of  the 
Inquisition."  Decoration  Day  on  the  bridge  was  signalized  in  a 
rather  sad  manner.  This  holiday  gave  a  good  opportunity  for  people 
from  far  and  near  to  take  their  tirst  look  at  the  bridge  and  to  pass 
over  it  for  the  tirst  time,  and  vast  crowds  went  back  and  forth  over  the 
promenade  all  day.  Late  in  the  afternoon  a  woman  stumbled  in  going 
down  the  steps  leading  from  the  elevated  promenade  on  the  New  York 
side,  and  a  few  others  were  carried  down  as  she  fell.  Some  excitable 
or  foolish  or  reckless  person  cried  out  that  the  bridge  was  giving  way. 
and  at  onee  a  panic  was  created  and  a  wild  rush  was  made  toward 
the  New  York  approach.  People  tumbled  pell  mell  down  the  steps, 
twelve  persons  being  crushed  or  suffocated  to  death,  and  thirty-five 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


473 


badly  hurt.  On  September  21, 1883,  the  railroad  was  put  in  operation, 
and  the  average  number  of  persons  crossing  the  bridge  per  ears  or  on 
foot,  is  now  115,000  per  day.  In  1891  the  promenade  was  made  free  t<> 
foot  passengers,  and  the  fare  charged  on  the  ears  is  now  only  five  rents 
for  two  tickets.  A  special  bridge  police  force  was  organized,  consist- 
ing at  present  of  a  captain,  two  sergeants,  and  ninety-three  police- 
men. They  have  acquired  great  skill  in  handling  the  immense  crowds, 
and  their  quickness  and  promptness  have  stopped  many  a  runaway  on 
the  carriage  ways  from  making  havoc  in  the  streets  at  either  termi- 
nus. From  the  first  the  bridge  was  lighted  by  electric  arc  lamps,  set 
at  frequent  intervals,  and  one  of  the  finest  sights  in  all  the  vicinity  of 
New  York  is  to  behold  at  night  this  crown  of  sparkling  lights,  visible 
for  miles  around,  hung  over  the  dark  waters  beneath.  Utility,  science, 
art,  strength,  elegance,  and  beauty,  combine  to  render  this  great 
bridge  the  pride  and  glory  of  two  cities.  Jt  bound  them  into  one  by 
strands  of  steel,  and  has  led  logically  to  the  result  realized  in  a  later 
decade,  which  makes  them  one  in  corporate  existence. 

When  the  Grand  Central  depot  arose  in  1870,  it  was  meant  to  con- 
centrate there  all  the  roads  of  the  Vanderbilt  system  running  into 
New  York.  The  Harlem  and  New  Haven  trains  had  always  come  into 
the  city  along  Fourth  Avenue;  but  the  Hudson  River  trains  followed 
the  shore  and  Eleventh  Avenue  down  to  its  depot  on  Thirtieth  Street, 
between  Ninth  and  Tenth  Avenues.  The  latter  road  was  now  de- 
flected under  the  bluff  at  Spuyten  Duyvil,  carried  through  deep  cuts 
in  the  rocks  there  and  near  Mott  Haven,  and  along  the  creek  and  the 
Harlem  River  bank  till  it  joined  the  Harlem  and  New  Haven  tracks 
a  little  distance  before  they  crossed  the  Harlem  River  into  Fourth 
Avenue.  Accidents  had  been  plentiful  enough  when  two  busy  roads 
ran  their  trains  to  a  great  extent  along  the  level  of  the  streets  in  Har- 
lem: it  would  not  do  to  add  a  still  busier  road  to  the  number.  Hence 
an  engineering  enterprise  of  great  magnitude  was  undertaken  and 
finished  in  1875.  Four  tracks  started  out  from  the  Grand  Central 
depot,  and  were  conducted  in  their  full  width  partly  through  a  sunken 
viaduct,  open  to  the  sky  between  street  crossings,  partly  through  a 
tunnel  piercing  the  solid  rocks  for  over  half  a  mile,  until  suddenly 
they  emerged  upon  the  lowlands  of  Harlem  plain  where,  from  about 
Ninety-fifth  Street  to  about  One  Hundred  and  Fourteenth  Street,  they 
lay  on  the  top  of  a  lofty  viaduct,  pierced  by  arches  at  street  crossings. 
Just  below  One  Hundred  and  Sixteenth  Street  they  entered  once  more 
a  sunken  viaduct  open  to  the  sky,  growing  deeper  and  deeper  as 
it  approached  the  river,  and  with  Avails  of  brick.  In  the  tunnel  there 
were  three  passages:  a  wide  one  in  the  center  with  two  tracks 
for  express  trains,  and  one  on  either  side  with  one  track  each 
for  local  trains.  The  entire  viaduct,  thus  variously  constructed,  cost 
six  millions  of  dollars,  shared  half  and  half  by  the  city  and  the  com- 
pany.   Some  eight  or  more  years  ago  the  sunken  viaduct  was  con- 


474 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


tinued  through  the  annexed  district,  with  walls  of  granite  instead  of 
brick.  But  within  a  few  years  the  requirements  of  the  Harlem  ship 
canal  have  compelled  very  serious  alterations  in  these  originally 
costly  arrangements.  Instead  of  the  low  bridge  over  the  U-arlein.  one 
far  above  tide  water  had  to  be  constructed,  and  to  meet  the  elevation 
of  the  bridge,  the  suuken  viaduct  from  One  Hundred  and  Sixteenth 
Street  to  the  river  has  had  to  be  converted  into  an  elevated  one,  rest- 
ing on  heavy  iron  supports.  The  handsome  brick  station  at  Mott 
Haven,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  had  to  be  removed  bodily  from  its 
site.  AYith  hundreds  of  trains  passing  up  and  down  all  through  the 
twenty-four  hours,  this  great  change  has  been  effected  without  the 
least  interference  with  traffic,  and  before  the  present  year  (  loses  the 
last  vestiges  of  the  temporary  tracks  will  be  gone,  and  the  altered 

road  be  in  opera- 
tion as  if  it  never 
had  run  in  any  dif- 
ferent manner 
through  Harlem. 

In  the  centen- 
nial year.  1876.  the 
French  (iovern- 
m  e  n  t  presented 
New  York  with  a 
statue  of  Lafay- 
ette by  Bartholdi, 
whose  name  lias 
been  connected 
since  with  a  still 
Hi^^^^^^l^BHH^HHHHI^HiH^^^^^H^H  con- 

PAKK  AVENUE  TUNNEL   BENEATH.  tl'ibution.  This 

was  done  in  grate- 
ful consideration  of  the  sympathy  expressed  in  America  with 
the  movements  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  latest 
French  Republic.  The  French  patriot  is  represented  clasping  his 
sw  ord  with  fool  advanced  and  resting  upon  the  prow  of  a  boat,  about 
to  leap  ashore  upon  the  soil  he  came  to  liberate.  It  stands  in  Union 
Square,  facing  directly  down  Broadway,  about  half  way  between  the 
slat  ues  of  Washington  and  Lincoln.  At  t  he  unveiling  exercises.  Fred- 
erick K.  Coudert,  the  orator  of  the  day,  referring  to  this  position,  said: 
"  If  we  could  say  to  Lafayette, '  Where  do  you  wish  your  image  to  rest 
for  ages, in  order  1  hat  our  descendants  may  look  upon  it  and  love  you?' 
would  he  not  have  chosen  just  the  spot  we  have,  and  have  said:  '  I 
wish  to  be  near  the  man  who  called  me  son.  and  whom  I  loved  as  a 
father?  '  "  The  statue  of  Lincoln  had  been  set  up  in  the  year  L870;  it 
was  by  the  same  sculptor,  II.  K.  Browne,  w  ho  had  designed  the  eques- 
trian statue  of  Washington  on  the  other  side  of  the  Square. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


475 


On  July  21,  1880,  the  public  of  New  York  was  startled  by  the  oc- 
currence of  an  accident  involving  severe  loss  of  life,  and  calling  atten- 
tion to  a  piece  of  engineering  peculiarly  hazardous,  yet  which  but  few 
knew  was  going  on.  In  1877  a  company  with  a  capital  of  ten  millions 
of  dollars  began  the  construction  of  a  tunnel  under  the  Hudson  River, 
intended  to  convey  trains  from  Jersey  City  to  New  York,  to  emerge 
somewhere  near  Washington  Square.  It  was  to  be  twelve  thousand 
feet  long,  and  its  extent  under  the  river  bed  just  one  mile.  Two  par- 
allel shafts  were  sunk,  each  twenty-five  feet  in  diameter  and  thirty 
feet  deep,  these  to  be  connected  by  an  airlock  with  a  horizontal  iron 
tube  or  shaft,  to  be  pushed  into  the  silt  and  mud,  the  materials  being 
blown  out  by  the  force  of  compressed  air.  As  fast  as  the  iron  tube 
made  a  way  for  the  workmen,  a  brick  wall  secured  the  space  cleared. 
Several  hundred  feet  had  already  been  gained  on  the  Jersey  side,  and 
work  had  just  begun  on  the  New  York  bank,  when  a  portion  of  the 
Jersey  section  caved  in,  shortly  after  the  men  had  commenced  work 
on  the  morning  of  the  fatal  day,  engulfing  twenty  laborers,  whom  it 
was  impossible  to  rescue.  It  took  several  weeks  to  recover  the  bodies 
and  to  remove  the  debris.  Work  may  still  be  going  on,  but  not  much 
of  it  has  come  to  public  notice. 

A  remarkable  advance  in  street  lighting  was  made  possible  during 
this  period  by  the  perfection  of  the  arc  electric  lamp.  In  the  early 
seventies  lighting  by  electricity  was  still  only  a  dream  or  a  prophecy, 
indulged  in  by  sanguine  scientists  alone.  In  1876,  during  the  Cen- 
tennial Exhibition  at  Philadelphia,  arc  lights  were  still  shown  as 
curiosities.  But  we  have  seen  that  the  Brooklyn  bridge  was  lighted 
by  electricity  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  at  that  time  streets  and  parks 
were  made  as  bright  as  noonday.  The  wise  policy  was  pursued  of 
placing  the  electric  lights,  first  of  all,  and  most  abundantly,  in  the 
downtown  streets  of  the  worst  reputation  for  crime  and  vice.  They 
served  as  a  material  aid  to  the  police  in  tracking  criminals,  as  well 
as  preventives  of  evil  doing.  At  first  many  public  halls  and  libraries 
or  reading-rooms  took  advantage  of  the  brilliant  illumination.  But 
the  inevitable  flickering  made  the  light  intolerable  for  such  uses. 
Electricity,  as  an  indoor  illuminating  agent,  was  only  made  possible 
when  Edison,  after  incredible  labor  and  patient  experiment  with  all 
kinds  of  material,  hit  at  last  upon  the  vacuum  bulb  with  its  delicate 
incandescent  thread,  in  1878.  It  need  not  be  told  what  delightful  re- 
sults have  since  been  realized  by  this  great  invention. 

In  the  matter  of  the  city's  church  life  during  this  period,  three  nota- 
ble occurrences  deserve  special  record.  He  who  has  an  eye  for  the 
beautiful  in  architecture,  and  cherishes  a  loyal  desire  that  New  York 
may  be  on  a  par  with  other  great  cities  in  the  world  in  this  respect, 
cannot  look  with  indifference  upon  the  chaste,  beautiful,  and  impos- 
ing Cathedral  that  adorns  Eifth  Avenue  at  Fiftieth  Street.  We  have 
noticed  that  the  cornerstone  of  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral  was  laid  on 


476 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


August  15,  1858.  it  was  consecrated  on  .May  25,  1879.  The  church  is  a 
pure  specimen  <>f  t  he  noblest  ( rothic  style  of  the  decorated  order,in  the 
form  of  the  Latin  cross,  nave  rising  high  above  aisles,  and  two  lofty 
steeples  with  delicate  marble  tracery  at  the  front,  facing  to  the  West. 
It  is  of  the  13th  -century  style  of  architecture,  the  catnedrals  of 
Rheiins  and  Cologne  being  of  the  same  class.  The  length  of  the  inte- 
rior is  306  feet,  that  of  Cologne  Dom  being  ."ill  feet;  the  spires  attain 
a  height  of  330  feet;  those  at  Cologne  being  ."ill  feet,  or  equal  to 
the  ground  length.  It  shares  with  the  Cologne  Cathedral  the  rare  fea- 
ture of  complete  towers  and  spires,  those  of  Antwerp  and  Strasburg 
having  only  one  completed,  while  St.  (iudule  at  Brussels  and  Notre 
Dame  at  Paris  have  the  towers  without  the  spires. 

In  1S7(>  there  was  an  echo  of  the  "  Great  Awakening  "  of  1740.  and 
of  the  revival  of  1857.  At  that  time  Moody  and  Sankey  were  names 
already  famous,  and  they  had  made  the  tour  of  England  and  Scotland 
with  astonishing  results.  In  October.  1875,  they  began  evangelistic 
labors  in  Brooklyn,  and  after  visiting  Philadelphia  during  December 
and  January,  they  commenced  a  series  of  meetings  in  New  York  on 
February.  1876,  at  the  Hippodrome,  the  site  of  the  present  .Madison 
Square  Garden,  Covering  the  entire  block  between  Fourth  and  Madi- 
son Avenues  and  Twenty-sixth  and  Twenty-seventh  Streets.  The 
Hippodrome  was  divided  into  two  auditoriums,  one  capable  of  accom- 
modating seven  thousand  persons,  the  other  four  thousand.  Both 
were  filled  at  every  meeting,  and  thousands  more  stood  outside.  Dis- 
tinguished clergymen  assisted  Mr.  Moody,  and  a  choir  of  twelve  hun- 
dred voices  led  the  singing  under  Mr.  Sankey's  direction.  But  the 
simple  preaching  of  the  one  and  the  impressive  singing  of  the  other 
were  the  great  attractions,  and  won  the  great  bulk  of  the  results.  Mr. 
Moody  constantly  insisted :  "  I  want  no  false  excitement,"  and  his  dis- 
cretion and  prudence  in  managing  snch  vast  audiences  were  a  marvel. 
Apart  from  all  statistics  as  to  the  number  of  conversions,  perhaps 
no  better  evidence  can  be  given  of  the  excellent  impression  these  men 
made  upon  the  community  than  the  following  testimonies  from  en- 
tirely unexpected  quarters.  The  Tablet,  the  organ  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  published  in  New  York,  referred  to  Mr.  Moody  as 
furnishing  "  in  t  he  midst  of  an  age  of  mocking  and  unbelieving,  a  kind 
of  earnest  testimony  to  Jesus,  and  we  can  not  find  it  in  our  heart  to 
say  it  is  not  of  Cod."  Again,  the  Jetcish  Messenger,  also  published 
here,  expressed  hearty  approval  of  services,  ministering  to  no  spas- 
modic emotional  religion,  and  bound  to  produce  substantial  good. 
Equally  appreciative  were  the  utterances  from  Unitarian  and  "  liber- 
al "  pulpits  of  all  sorts.  In  1890  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  paid  an- 
other brief  visit  to  New  York  City,  and  again  in  the  winter  of  1896  to 
1897.  But  nothing  in  these  later  years  approached  in  the  remotesl 
degree  the  immense  enthusiasm  they  awakened  in  the  year  1876; 

Just  before  the  centennial  of  Evacuation  Day.  or  on  November  13. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


477 


1883,  was  celebrated  the  quadri-centenriial  of  the  Birthday  of  Luther, 
born  at  Eisleben,  Germany,  November  10,  14s:',.  The  tenth  fell  on  a 
Saturday,  and  hence  the  following  Tuesday  was  deemed  a  better  day 
for  the  anniversary.  On  Sunday,  the  11t  h,  at  the  request  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance,  the  birthday  of  the  great  Reformer  was  made  the 
theme  of  countless  sermons  all  over  the  country  and  the  world.  Un- 
der the  auspices  of  the  American  branch,  popular  meetings  were  held 
in  various  cities  of  the  land.  In  New  York  one  was  called  at  the 
Academy  of  Music  on  Fourteenth  Street,  on  Tuesday  evening,  Novem 
her  13.  Four  hundred  singers,  under  the  leadership  of  Leopold 
Damrosch,  furnished  the 
music.  As  early  as  six 
o'clock  the  street  in  front  of 
the  Academy  was  crowded 
with  people  waiting  for  the 
doors  to  be  opened.  The 
colors  of  the  United  States 
and  Germany  were  blended 
in  t  h  e  decorations,  and 
across  the  stage  was  strung 
in  huge  ornamented  letter- 
ing Luther's  famous  utter- 
ance at  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
where  Protestantism  joined 
issue  deliberately  with  the 
Ancient  Church  :  "  Hier 
stehe  ich.  Ich  kann  nicht 
anders.  So  hilf  mir  Gott. 
Amen."  A  marble  bust  of 
the  Reformer  adorned  the 
speakers'  desk.  The  Hon. 
John  Jay,  President  of  the 
American  Branch  of  the 
Alliance,  presided  over  the 
meeting.  In  his  opening 
address  he  said:  "The  four 
centuries  passed  afford  ample  and  convenient  opportunity  of 
comparing  the  effects  of  reformed  and  unreformed  Christianity, 
upon  the  intelligence,  the  morality,  the  liberty,  the  prosperity  of  na- 
tions."' He  introduced  as  the  first  speaker  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  M. 
Taylor  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle.  After  an  address  of  characteris- 
tic power  and  eloquence,  Luther's  stirring  hymn  "  Ein  Feste  Burg." 
was  sung  with  splendid  effect  by  the  immense  choir  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Damrosch;  whereupon  an  address  was  made  by  the  Rev.  Phil- 
lips Brooks  of  Boston,  later  Bishop  of  Massachusetts.  The  occasion 
was  one  long  to  be  remembered  by  those  present. 


478 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Complaints  were  still  in  order  in  the  year  1882  that  the  carrying 
trade  in  the  world's  commerce  w  as  steadily  departing  from  the  United 
Slates.  A  more  extensive  record  than  the  one  cited  in  the  preceding 
chapter  painfully  shows  how  the  percentages  decreased.  In  1856 
American  ships  bore  of  all  the  goods  we  imported  and  exported.  75 
per  cent.  In  1878  this  item  had  dwindled  to  25  per  cent.;  in  1882,  to 
15  per  cent.  In  1856  the  foreign  vessels  entering  our  ports  registered 
an  aggregate  tonnage  of  3,117,034.  In  1881  this  foreign  tonnage  had 
increased  308  per  cent.  During  the  same  interval  American  tonnage 
had  grown  only  54  per  cent.  Trade  and  commerce  were  very  nearly 
paralyzed  in  1877  by  the  great  railway  strike  organized  simultane- 
ously all  over  the  country.  The  employees  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio, 
the  Pennsylvania,  the  Erie,  and  the  New  York  Central  with  their 
Western  connections,  were  reduced  10  per  cent,  in  their  wages,  a  hard- 
ship that  seemed  especially  unnecessary  after  the  heavy  earnings  of 
these  roads  during  the  centennial  year.  At  one  and  the  same  time 
prominent  railway  centers  were  seized,  and  the  movement  of  trains 
blocked,  so  that  freight  traffic  was  entirely  suspended,  and  passenger 
and  mail  service  were  badly  interfered  with.  Acts  of  violence  soon  be- 
gan to  occur.  Pittsburg  especially  was  afflicted  with  sanguinary  riots 
and  serious  injury  to  property,  and  President  Hayes  had  to  send 
United  States  troops  into  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  West  Vir- 
ginia to  aid  the  militia.  Near  New  York  the  worst  that  occurred  were 
partially  successful  attempts  to  burn  the  Erie  Railway  bridges  on  the 
Hackensack  Meadows.  In  1876  an  experiment  was  tried  by  the 
United  States  Government  to  furnish  the  fastest  possible  mail  service 
between  New  York  and  Chicago;  and  on  the  Pennsylvania  and  New 
York  Central  were  seen  flying  the  handsome  white  mail  cars,  with 
their  lettering  and  other  devices  in  glittering  gilt.  But  the  service 
proved  too  costly  and  was  abandoned.  Business  of  all  kinds  was  very 
much  affected,  and  in  the  end  uniformly  for  the  better,  by  the  resump- 
tion of  specie  payment  on  January  1. 1S79.  of  which  warning  had  been 
given  four  years  before  by  the  Resumption  Act  passed  by  Congress 
on  January  14,  1875.  For  several  years  in  succession  exceedingly 
abundant  harvests  had  blessed  the  country,  sending  a  stream  of  gold 
on  its  way  from  Europe  to  our  shores,  and  this  made  resumption  of 
payments  on  a  gold  basis  much  easier  than  had  been  anticipated, 
greenbacks  rising  to  par  several  days  before  the  date  set  for  resuming. 
It  was  for  news  from  New  York  that  the  authorities  at  Washington 
waited,  for  unquestionably  this  city  Mas  recognized  as  the  financial 
center  and  capital  of  the  Nation.  When  the  message  arrived  at  the 
Treasury  in  Washington:  "  A  large  proportion  of  gold  checks  paid  in 
U.  S.  notes  at  request  of  holders." — resumption  was  known  to  be  a 
success.  The  financial  transactions  at  New  York  were  assuming  pro- 
portions of  the  most  gigantic  sort.  The  year  1SS1  w  as  especially  phe- 
nomenal. The  transact  ions  at  the  Stock  Exchange  thai  year  amount- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


479 


ed  to  over  eight  thousand  millions,  and  in  1882  considerably  over  one 
hundred  and  sixteen  millions  of  shares  were  sold  there.  The  Clearing 
House  also  furnishes  abundant  evidence  of  what  enormous  monetary 
transactions  the  metropolis  was  the  constant  scene.  It  is  recorded 
that  in  188G  the  operations  there  reached  the  astounding  figure  of 
$33,676,830,000,  or  more  than  eleven  times  the  highest  amount  of  the 
National  debt  after  the  war.  It  was  noted  that  when  the  Clearing 
House  was  founded  in  1853,  London  had  been  before  us  with  its  own 
some  sixty  years.  The  operations  of  1886  exceeded  those  of  the  older 
English  house,  and  were  two  and  one-fifth  times  greater  than  the 
clearings  of  all  the  other  cities  of  the  Republic  t-oinbined.  And  yet  the 
wonderful  year  1881  realized  an  amount  operated  by  the  Clearing 
House  far  in  excess  of  that  of  1886 — it  then  reached  the  really  fabu- 
lous and  inconceivable  sum  of  $50,341,836,373.89!  The  daily  average 
for  the  year  ending  October  1,  1881,  was  $165,055,201.22;  the  largest 
amount  cleared  for  any  one  day  was  that  on  February  28,  1881, 
namely,  $295,821,422.37.  Surely  the  genius  that  presided  over 
the  birth  of  this  city,  issuing  from  a  town  which  had  established 
one  of  the  earliest  and  most  famous  banks  of  the  world — the 
Bank  of  Amsterdam,  founded  in  January,  1609,  the  year  of  Hud- 
son's discovery — must  have  been  slightly  bewildered  by  the  tre- 
mendous and  incalculable  results  that  followed  his  work  in  the 
course  of  two  aud  a  half  centuries.  For  the  year  ending  Octo- 
ber 1,  1895,  the  exchanges  reckoned  up  considerably  less  or  about 
twenty-eight  thousand  millions.  Subsequent  to  1881  the  times 
seem  to  have  been  steadily  less  prosperous,  or  capital  less  con- 
fident and  more  secretive.  In  manufactures  also  New  York  occupied 
a  leading  place.  "  It  stands  first  in  the  country  in  the  value  of  its 
annual  production  and  probably  first  in  the  world,"  declares  one  wh^ 
knows.  The  same  authority  (speaking  of  1880)  asserts  that  the  "  city 
manufactures  annually  more  men's  clothing  than  anything  else,  ex- 
ceeding $60,000,000  worth.  Its  second  industry  is  slaughtering  and 
meat-packing,  not  including  the  retail  butchers,  at  $29,297,527.  Third 
in  value  are  malt  and  malt-liquors,  $25,000,000.  Then  follow  tobacco 
and  cigars,  exceeding  $22,000,000.  The  vast  work  of  its  printers 
and  publishers  is  only  fourth  in  rank,  at  $21,696,354,  and  wom- 
en's clothing  is  reported  at  $18,930,553.  .  .  .  Other  branches 
in  the  order  of  their  annual  values  are  .  .  .  foundries  and  ma- 
chine work,  lard,  sugar  and  molasses,  furniture  and  upholstering, 
.  .  .  boots  and  shoes,  silks,  musical  instruments,  grease  and  tal- 
low, flour  and  grist,  shirts,  coffee  and  spices,  and  jewelry."  Commerce 
and  finance  so  overshadow  these  homely  yet  useful  industries,  that 
one  would  hardly  have  suspected  this  tremendous  manufacturing  ac- 
tivity of  the  metropolis,  even  so  long  ago  as  1880.  Commerce  and  in- 
dustry received  another  efficient  handmaid  for  the  swifter  transaction 
of  its  business  in  the  shape  of  the  telephone.    In  1876  Mr.  Bell  ex- 


480 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


hibited  the  instrument  as  a  curiosity  at  Philadelphia,  and  before  the 
year  was  out  Edison  added  a  carbon  transmitter,  which  has  placed  it 
among  the  necessities  of  business  and  intercourse  by  the  side  of  the 
mail  and  the  telegraph.  In  the  spring  of  1877  it  began  this  career  of 
practical  usefulness,  and  by  June  1.  two  hundred  telephones  were  in 
use  over  t  he  whole  United  States.  Now  t  he  number  reaches  more  than 
650,000.  The  calls  and  connections  in  New  York  City  alone  daily 
average  fifty  thousand.  Telephone  communication  is  now  an  estab- 
lished fact  between  New  York  and  Boston  and  Chicago. 

During  this  period  two  important  societies  were  Organized.  One. 
the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children,  was  incor- 
porated in  1875.  Mr.  Bergh,  of  the  society  for  saving  animals  from  in- 
human treatment,  was  appealed  to  on  one  occasion  to  rescue  a  child 
from  the  tortures  of  a  drunken  mother.  His  experience  in  the  case  led 
to  the  formation  of  the  society  in  question,  now  supported  by  stat  utes 
in  its  work,  otherwise  hopeless  of  accomplishment  because  of  the  nat- 
ural and  Legal  rights  of  parents  and  guardians,  even  the  most  un- 
worthy. The  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  ( 'rime  was  formed  in  1 876. 
It  was  long  under  the  leadership  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Howard  Crosby,  and. 
after  his  death,  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Parkhurst.  It  became  the  determined 
foe  of  the  excessive  saloon,  and  especially  of  the  liquor  business  ille- 
gally carried  on  under  the  protection  of  the  police.  The  Howard  Mis- 
sion, an  organization  very  similar  to  the  Children's  Aid  Society,  was 
founded  in  1861  by  the  Rev.  W.  C.  N  an  Meter,  at  35  New  Bowery, 
where  was  established  a  "  home  for  little  wanderers."  gathered  from 
off  the  streets,  or  from  homes  where  they  were  rapidly  being  heathen- 
ized. 

A  beginning  had  been  made  of  a  Met  ropolitan  Museum  of  Art  early 
in  the  seventies,  in  the  Cruger  .Mansion  on  Fourteenth  Street  near 
Sixth  Avenue,  where  Gen.  Di  Cesnola's  Cypriote  collection  was  the 
nucleus  of  greater  things.  The  organization  was  effected  by  a  com- 
mittee of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  gentlemen,  appointed  at  a  public 
meeting  held  on  November  23.  180J).  On  April  13,  L870,  the  Legisla- 
ture granted  incorporation.  Its  tirst  acquisition  was  a  number  of 
paintings  by  old  Flemish  and  Dutch  masters,  placed  on  exhibition  at 
681  Fifth  Avenue.  In  1S72  the  Di  Cesnola  collection  was  purchased. 
The  Cruger  Mansion  proving  quite  inadequate  to  the  purposes  of  the 
Museum,  permission  was  obtained  to  erect  the  handsome  gallery  in 
Central  Park.  On  March 30,  1886,  the  edifice  as  it  then  was.  wis  com- 
pleted and  opened  to  the  public.  It  has  been  considerably  enlarged 
since.  In  keeping  with  its  purposes,  a  fine  relic  of  antiquity  stands  in 
its  immediate  vicinity.  In  1S77  the  Khedive  of  Egypt  offered  to  the 
city  one  of  the  famous  Obelisks,  or  Cleopatra's  Needles,  placed  near 
the  Temple  of  On  by  Thothmes  III.  Lieutenant  Gorringe  devised  a 
sa  fe  met  hod  of  shipping  it .  and  t  he  entire  expense  of  conveying  it  from 
Egypl  and  placing  it  in  Central  Park  was  borne  by  Mr.  Vanderbilt, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


481 


the  cost  of  the  undertaking  reaching  about  $100,000.  The  Museum 
of  Natural  History  iu  the  annex  of  the  Park  west  of  Eighth  Avenue 
between  Seventy-seventh  and  Eighty-first  Streets,  was  formally 
opened  to  the  public. as  then  completed, by  President  Hayes  in  Decem- 
ber, 1877.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Park,  meanwhile,  on  Fifth  A  \  «■- 
nue,  between  Seventieth  and  Seventy-first  Streets,  private  wealth  had 
erected  another  noble  edifice,  devoted  to  high  educational  purposes— 
the  Library  founded  by 
Mr.  James  Lenox.  Mr. 
Lenox  had  used  his  im- 
mense wealth  to  gratify 
a  h  i  g  h  1  y  cultivated 
taste,  and  for  years  he 
had  been  an  indefatig- 


able  collector  of  liter- 
ary and  art  treasures. 
These  he  placed  in  a 
m  a  g  n  i  f  i  c  e  n  t  stone 
building,  erected  for 
the  purpose  of  placing 
the  r  a  r  e  books  and 
manuscripts  and  the 
valuable  paintings, 
within  the  reach  of  the 
public.  It  was  opened 
in  January,  1S77.  The 
building  cost  $1,000,- 
000,  and  was  presented 
by  him  to  the  Lenox 
Library  Association, 
with  a  large  sum  in  ad- 
dition for  its  permanent 
endowment. 

Three  men  of  note 
passed  from  the  busy 
stage  of  New  York  life, 
to  which  they  had  con- 
tributed much  that  was 
remarkable  and  inipres- 
s  i  v  e.  Alexander  T. 
Stewart,  for  many 
years  the  richest  man  in  America,  died  in  1S7G.  In  1848  he  had 
bought  the  old  Washington  Hall  on  Broadway  between  Cham- 
bers and  Reade  Streets,  and  opened  there  a  large  drygoods  busi- 
ness. He  had  come  from  Ireland  a  young  Protestant  school- 
master, but  in  New  York  he  took  to  trade,  opened  a  small  store, 


THE  OBELISK  IN  CENTRAL  PARK, 


•482 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


was  prosperous,  and  startled  the  community  by  the  scale  upon 
which  he  set  up  business  on  the  site  of  the  old  llall.  He  gradu- 
ally added  to  the  territory  and  building  he  possessed  there  till  a  store 
of  astonishing  size  for  that  day  covered  the  entire  block  from  Cham- 
bers to  Reade  Streets  and  two  hundred  feet  back  from  Broadway.  Not 
content  with  that,  after  the  w  ar  Mr.  Stew  art  secured  the  whole  square 
bounded  by  Broadway  and  Fourth  Avenue,  and  Ninth  and  Tenth 
Streets,  and  again  startled  a  later  generation  by  erecting  upon  that 
vast  area  a  building  of  iron.  Here  he  opened  a  retail  stoic,  devoting 
the  down  town  building  to  wholesale  transactions  exclusively.  Not 
many  years  before  his  death  he  erected  the  most  palatial  mansion  that 
had  yet  arisen  to  adorn  the  streets  of  New  York,  at  Fifth  Avenue  and 
Thirty-fourth  Street.  Here  he  died  April  10,  187<i.  Two  years  later 
the  city  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  great  agitation  when  it  was  learn- 
ed that  the  vault  in  St.  Mark's  churchyard  had  been  rilled  of  Mr. 
Stewart's  body,  by  ruffians  who  hoped  thus  to  compel  the  payment 
of  a  large  sum  for  its  recovery.  A  splendid  mausoleum  was  built  for 
the  final  deposit  of  the  remains  in  Garden  City,  Long  Island,  and  there 
still  is  some  mystery  about  the  question  whether  his  body  rests  there 
or  not. 

On  April  4,  1883,  death  removed  the  familiar  and  beloved  figure  of 
the  venerable  Peter  < Jooper,  the  founder  of  Cooper  Institute.  He  was 
born  in  a  house  on  Coenties  Slip  on  February  12,  1791,  so  that  he  had 
been  permitted  to  survive  by  a  few  weeks  his  ninety-second  birthday. 
How  many  New  Yorkers  remember  his  benevolent  face  and  active 
figure.  Hitting  about  the  platform  of  the  Cooper  Fnion  llall  when 
lectures  or  other  public  exercises  took  place  there.  He  began  life 
very  humbly,  doing  good  honest  work  at  a  variety  of  trades,  coach- 
making,  cloth-making,  keeping  a  grocery  store,  manufacturing  glue. 
Finally  he  became  an  ironmonger.  This  brought  him  to  Canton.  Md.. 
where  he  built  the  first  locomotive  ever  made  in  this  country,  for  the 
Baltimore  iV  Ohio  Railroad.  In  1845  he  removed  his  works  to  Tien- 
ton,  N.  J.  Large  fortune  came  into  his  possession,  which  we  have  seen 
he  used  largely  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  youth  as  lowly  as  he  once 
was.  to  gain  an  education  and  training  for  various  professions.  His 
Connection  with  the  Atlantic  Cable  has  also  been  related.  He  be- 
queathed the  Institute  as  a  gift  to  the  city,  ami  upon  the  square  in 
front  of  it  a  handsome  memorial  has  been  recently  erected  in  his 
honor. 

On  February  0,  1883,  another  prominent  New  York  merchant,  equal- 
ly a  "  self-made  man,"  William  E.  Dodge,  died  at  the  age  of  78. 
He  began  life  sweeping  and  doing  errands  for  a  drygoods  store  on 
Pearl  Street.  Later  In-  went  into  the  metal  business,  and  was  a  lend- 
ing member  of  the  great  linn  of  Phelps.  Dodge  &  Co.  Mr.  Dodge  was 
identified  with  the  Young  .Men's  Christian  Association,  was  President 
of  the  American  Branch  id'  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  and  in  many 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


483 


other  ways  made  himself  a  force  in  the  religions  life  of  the  city.  His 
strict  views  on  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  caused  him  to  resign 
his  place  as  one  of  the  Directors  of  the  Erie  Railroad,  when  it  was  de- 
termined to  run  trains  on  Sunday.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  pro- 
moters of  the  system  of  Sunday-schools  when  these  were  still  a  nov- 
elty in  the  city,  and  ever  remained  an  active  worker  in  them  himself. 
While  New  York  can  number  among  her  citizens  a  Lenox,  a  Cooper,  a 
Dodge,  she  need  not  want  for  inspiring  examples  to  her  youth,  nor 
fear  that  the  pursuit  of  great  wealth  necessarily  deadens  the  sensibili- 
ties to  the  finer  needs  of  the  human  spirit. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


A    CKXTIKY    OF  IMoX. 


HE  Presidential  campaign  of  L884  had  in  it  agaiD  an  element 
of  personal  interest  for  New  York.  Once  before  one  of  her 
citizens,  Horace  Greeley,  had  been  selected  as  a  standard 
bearer  to  break  up  the  solid  ranks  of  the  dominant  political 
party.  But  the  man  on  the  other  side  had  too  strong  a  hold  upon  the 
people's  hearts  and  the  country's  gratitude,  and  Greeley's  defeal  was 
inevitable.  Now  again  a  man  from  New  York  State,  and  her  Gover- 
nor, Mr.  Grover  Cleveland,  was  fixed  upon  to  accomplish  that  seem 
ingly  impossible  design.   The  dominant  party  had  made  the  mistake 

of  nominating  a  man  who  could  not 
rally  all  his  party  behind  him.  So 
serious  was  the  defection  that  a  meet- 
ing of  Independent  Republicans  was 
held  in  New  York  on  June  1<>.  1884, 
which  was  presided  over  by  George 
William  Curtis.  They  protested 
against  the  nominee  at  the  head  of 
the  ticket,  and  deliberately  threw  out 
the  hint  that  if  the  other  party  would 
nominate  "  the  proper  men."  support 
would  be  given  to  them.  In  1872,  in 
just  such  an  emergency  the  Demo- 
crats had  been  induced  to  go  outside 
their  party  and  nominate  Greeley, 
who  had  often  seriously  opposed  them 
in  some  of  their  most  cherished  prin- 
ciples and  in  which  he  was  still  out  of 
harmony  with  them.  At  the  present  juncture  they  did  not  ex- 
actly go  outside  their  party,  but  they  nominated  one  who  could 
not  be  wholly  claimed  as  a  party  man.  who  they  instinctively 
felt  was  something  more  than  they  could  manage,  and  whom 
therefore  they  chose  with  reluctance.  It  was  actually  threatened 
by  the  Tammany  Hall  stripe  of  party  men  that  they  would  not 
vote  for  him.  and  that  faction  at  two  subsequent  nominating  con- 
ventions made  desperate  effort  s  to  prevent  the  naming  of  Mm  for  the 
Chief  Magistracy.   However  no  success  at  either  time  was  possible  to 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


485 


the  party  without  him,  and  when  he  was  nominated  in  1884,  the 
Independents  were  satisfied.  These  received  the  name  of  Mug- 
wump, given  in  derision  and  accepted  as  a  badge  of  honor,  like 
that  of  Christian,  and  Beggars,  and  Yankee,  and  so  many  others. 
More  than  one  New  York  Republican  paper  of  eminent  standing, 
such  as  the  Times  and  Evening  Post,  frankly  abandoned  the  old 
affiliations  and  gloried  in  becoming  Mugwump  organs  in  the  in- 
dorsement of  Cleveland.  New  York  City  by  a  curious  incident 
is  supposed  to  have  become  the  turning  point  in  the  decision  of 
the  final  result.  Late  in  October,  1884,  when  Mr.  Elaine  was  in 
New  York,  a  delegation  of  nearly  a  hundred  clergymen  of  vari- 
ous Protestant  denominations,  waited  upon  him  at  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel,  to  express  their  cordial  sympathy  with  the  principles  he  repre- 
sented, as  well  as  their  heart-felt  admiration  for  him  as  a  man.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Burchard,  their  spokesman,  in  the  utterance  of  these  senti- 
ments became  somewhat  reckless  in  speech,  allowing  himself  to  say 
that  the  Democrats  were  the  party  of  "  Rum,  Romanism,  and  Rebel- 
lion." It  was  a  beautiful  alliteration,  the  effect  of  which  Blaine  un- 
fortunately failed  to  spoil,  therefore  making  it  appear  as  if  he  in- 
dorsed the  sentiment.  The  Roman  Catholics  had  before  this  been  de- 
clared by  a  Tammany  stump-speaker  to  be  disaffected  toward  Cleve- 
land. When  Blaine  did  not  object  to  their  being  put  into  the  same 
category  of  contempt  and  denunciation  with  Rum  and  Rebellion,  ac- 
cepting Romanism  as  synonymous  with  these,  a  reaction  set  in  which 
many  consider  to  have  cost  him  the  election.  The  result  depended 
upon  the  Electoral  votes  of  New  York  State,  and  in  New  York  State 
there  was  a  plurality  of  only  about  one  thousand  for  Cleveland. 

Early  in  the  year  of  this  Presidential  campaign  New  York  received 
ocular  evidence  of  the  dangers  that  attend  the  pursuit  of  Arctic  c 
plorations. — a  subject  that  had  engaged  its  attention  and  enlisted 
its  earnest  sympathies  before  the  war.  In  1879  there  had  been  a  re- 
vival of  interest  in  Polar  Regions.  At  a  meeting  of  naturalists  in 
Germany,  a  plan  of  co-operation  was  suggested  whereby  ten  different 
stations  were  to  be  occupied  by  expeditions  from  as  many  countries, 
whence,  as  a  basis  of  supplies,  the  work  could  be  simultaneously 
pushed  further  north.  Two  of  these  stations  were  assigned  to  and  ac- 
cepted by  the  United  States,  one  at  Point  Barrow,  on  the  Coast  of 
Alaska,  and  the  other  at  Lady  Franklin  Bay.  Lieutenant  De  Long, 
in  the  Jeannette,  was  sent  to  the  former  point,  and  Lieutenant  Gree- 
ly  in  the  Proteus  to  the  latter.  De  Long  and  party  got  as  far  as  the 
Lena  Delta  on  the  northern  coast  of  Siberia,  and  there  perished.  On 
February  21,  1881,  the  bodies  of  the  Commander  and  nine  of  his  men 
arrived  at  New  York  in  the  Hamburg- American  Steamship  Frisia. 
In  April  and  May.  1881,  two  steamers  were  sent  out  from  our  harbor 
to  attempt  the  rescue  of  Greely,  who  had  not  been  heard  from  for  a 
long  time.    The  relief  expedition  came  just  in  time  to  save  the  com- 


4S<; 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


mander  and  five  of  his  men:  a  few  hours  later  and  they  might  not  have 
been  found  alive. 

Through  many  months  of  the  year  1885  the  Nation  was  anxiously 
watching  for  reports  from  a  sick  chamber  in  New  York.  General 
( rrant,  after  retiring  from  the  Presidency,  and  after  his  extended  tour 
of  the  world,  determined  to  make  New  York  his  home,  a  decision  to 
which  so  many  men  eminent  in  our  country's  history  have  come,  no 
matter  where  their  homes  may  have  been  before.  A  serious  misfor- 
tune in  the  way  of  his  business  relations  came  to  him  in  1SS4,  as  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  notice  a  few  pages  later,  and  the  anxiety  and 
strain  seem  to  have  broken  his  health.  Early  in  1885  it  was  an- 
nounced that  he  was  suffering  from  a  cancer  in  the  mouth  or  throat, 
and  that  lie  could  not  long  survive.  It  was  hardly  expected  that  he 
could  pass  his  birthday,  April  27.  yet  strangely  enough  he  rallied 
just  about  that  time,  and  the  fears  of  the  Nation  were  much  allayed. 
But  the  dread  disease  could  not  be  permanently  cheated  of  its  lav- 
ages. A  relapse  occurred,  and  the  suffering  General  was  removed  to 
Mount  MacGregor  in  the  Adirondacks.  Here  he  lingered  until  July 
~'\.  when  death  put  an  end  to  his  agonies.  After  much  discussion  as 
to  what  city  might  claim  the  honor  of  receiving  the  deposit  of  the 
honored  remains,  the  known  wish  of  the  dead  hero  himself  and  the 
choice  of  his  family  decided  the  question  in  favor  of  New  York,  which 
he  had  chosen  as  his  home,  and  where  any  memorial  raised  in  his  hon- 
or would  be  more  certain  to  receive  the  attention  of  the  world.  Sat- 
urday. August  S.  was  fixed  for  the  funeral,  the  spot  for  the  inter- 
ment being  the  one  familiar  to  New  Yorkers  during  the  last  twelve 
years,  by  the  side  of  the  Hudson  Kiver  at  the  highest  point  in  River- 
side Park.  For  several  days  the  body  lay  in  state  in  the  rotunda  of 
the  City  Hall,  where  that  of  his  friend  Lincoln  had  lain  twenty  years 
before,  and  countless  multitudes  passed  by  and  gazed  in  silence  upon 
the  restful  countenance  of  the  General,  now  silent  forever.  The  1".  S. 
Granl  Tost  of  the  Grand  Army  had  immediate  charge  of  the  remains, 
and  comrades  of  that  Post  bore  the  coffin  from  the  rotunda  to  the 
catafalque  that  was  to  convey  it  to  its  resting  place  iip-town,  and 
which  was  drawn  by  twenty-four  horses  heavily  draped  and  led  by 
grooms.  At  !>  o'clock,  precisely,  (ieneral  W'infield  S.  Hancock  took 
position  with  his  staff  in  Broadway  opposite  the  City  Hall;  and  at  i  lie 
signal  given  he  began  the  march  at  the  head  of  the  first  division, 
composed  of  United  States  troops  and  sailors.  All  the  way  to 
Thirty-fifth  Street  the  military  and  others  to  take  part  in  the 
procession  stood  in  the  successive  streets  awaiting  their  turn  to 
fall  into  line  ;  and  it  took  five  hours  to  pass  any  given  point. 
The  city  was  crowded  with  people  to  an  extent  then  unprece- 
dented. Three  hours  before  the  procession  was  advertised  to 
start,  the  streets  along  the  line  of  march  began  to  till  up.  points 
of  vantage  for  viewine  the  parade  beimi  held  with  eager  tenac- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


487 


ity,  no  matter  how  uncomfortable  the  situation.  Unfortunately  there 
was  some  hitch  iu  the  arrangements  so  that  sometimes  there  was  so 
long  a  break  in  the  procession  that  the  last  man  had  disappeared  far 
up  the  street  before  the  next  rank  came  into  sight  from  below.  The 
catafalque  reached  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  at  about  1  o'clock,  and  not 
till  4.25  did  it  reach  the  lowly  brick  structure  that  was  to  receive  the 
coffin  until  a  more  fitting  monument  could  be  reared.  As  the  spleudid 
car  bearing  the  remains  came  in  sight,  a  sailor  stationed  for  that  pur- 
pose on  Riverside  Drive  waved  a  flag,  and  at  once  salutes  of  guns 
boomed  from  several  war  vessels  lying  at  anchor  in  the  river  opposite 
the  tomb. 

The  catafalque  was  drawn  close  to  the  tomb,  and  as  it  halted,  the 
clergymen  and  physicians  who  had  occupied  the  two  or  three  leading 
carriages  immedi- 
ately behind  it, 
descended  to  the 
ground  and  took 
up  a  position  be- 
tween the  car  and 
t  o  m  b,  standing 
with  uncovered 
heads.  The  clergy- 
men invited  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  ex- 
ercises were 
Grant's  pastor,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Newman, 
Bishop  Harris  of 
the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church, 
the  Rev.  Robert 
Collyer,  Assistant  Bishop  of  New  York  Potter,  the  Rev.  Drs.  T. 
W.  Chambers,  H.  M.  Field,  and  C.  D'W.  Bridgman.  The  phy- 
sicians were  those  who  had  attended  Grant  in  his  last  sickness, 
Drs.  Douglas,  Sands,  and  Shrady.  Next  to  this  group  was  one 
composed  of  President  Cleveland  and  the  members  of  his  cabi- 
net, ex-Presidents  Hayes  and  Arthur,  Governors  of  States  and 
Mayors  of  cities,  Generals,  Statesmen,  and  others.  The  members  of 
General  Grant's  family  also  gathered  close  to  the  coffin,  which  was 
lowered  to  the  ground  by  members  of  the  U.  S.  Grant  Post.  Before  it 
was  carried  into  the  recess  a  wreath  made  of  oak-leaves  gathered  in 
the  woods  of  Mount  MacGregor  by  the  General's  little  grand- 
daughter, was  laid  upon  it.  The  ritual  of  the  Grand  Army  was  read, 
after  which  Bishop  Harris  read  the  burial  form  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  and  Dr.  Newman  closed  the  exercises  by  reading  selections 
from  Scripture  and  leading  in  the  recital  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  When 


EAST  RIVER  FROM  THE  BRIDGE. 


488 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  committal  services  were  finished  an  artilleryman  sounded  the 
tattoo  <»ii  the  bugle  at  Colonel  Grant's  request,  and  then  strong  men 
lifted  the  coftin,  now  incased  in  a  heavier  outside  casket. and  carried  it 
into  the  vault.  The  groups  near  the  gate  drew  back  to  let  the  children 
have  a  last  look  at  their  father's  resting-place  (Mrs.  Grant  was  not 
present),  the  iron  gate  was  closed  and  the  mortal  remains  of  the  Gen- 
eral were  left  to  rest  in  their  humble  abode  until  the  present  year. 
The  services  at  the  tomb  had  lasted  nearly  an  hour.  As  the  mourners 
and  visitors  were  departing  the  members  of  the  Fifth  Artillery  from 
Governor's  Island  took  up  their  position  as  guards,  a  duty  that  was 
performed  for  many  a  year  by  detachments  of  United  States  troops, 
who  formed  here  a  regular  cam])  for  the  purpose.  Then  the  Seventh 
Regiment  faced  the  river  and  tired  three  parting  volleys  of  musketry; 
the  Twenty-second  followed  with  three  volleys  more;  which  in  turn 
were  succeeded  by  three  salvos  from  the  artillery  and  a  Presidential 
salute  of  twenty-one  guns  by  the  warships  in  the  river.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  for  the  three  days  ending  on  this  memorable  Saturday  the 
total  number  of  strangers  carried  into  New  York  City  by  railroads, 
ferries,  and  across  the  Brooklyn  Bridge,  amounted  to  over  440,000. 
The  fact  that  so  many  came  to  do  honor  to  the  remains  of  Gram  was 
in  itself  fortunate.  "  The  greater  the  number  of  those  who  shared  the 
unique  and  wondrous  spectacle  the  better  was  it  for  American  pa- 
triotism ";  and  the  press  of  Xcw  York  rightly  argued  that  thereby 
was  vindicated  the  wisdom  of  the  decision  to  bury  the  departed  Gen- 
eral in  the  metropolis.  The  weather  also  was  favorable  to  the  gather- 
ing of  so  great  a  throng.  Bain  had  prevailed  on  Friday,  but  Saturday 
was  fair  and  measurably  cool  so  that  but  few  who  exposed  themselves 
for  hours  to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun  were  prostrated  by  the  heat. 
And  not  among  the  least  of  the  lessons  of  the  spectacle,  was  the  prac- 
tical ocular  demonstration  it  furnished  that  the  war  carried  t<»  suc- 
cess for  the  North  by  the  dead  hero's  genius,  had  forever  ceased.  It 
would  have  done  his  heart  good  to  know  that  behind  his  remains, 
equally  plunged  into  grief  at  his  early  demise,  and  equally  eager  to 
do  him  honor,  rode  Generals  Sherman  and  Johnston  together  in  one 
carriage,  and  Generals  Sheridan  and  Buckner  in  another:  and  that  to 
their  hands  together  were  assigned  honorable  duty  as  pall  hearers. 
It  was  a  Vivid  evidence  thai  the  Nation  bad  heeded  the  strong  and 
simple  exhortation  so  often  upon  Grant's  lips:  "  Let  us  bave  peace." 

Favored  by  nature  with  convenient  waterways  affording  miles  of 
wharfage  for  shipping,  and  capable  of  hearing  the  deepest  bottoms 
laden  with  the  commerce  of  the  world, — there  was  one  point  in  the 
remarkable  system  where  navigation  was  attended  with  extreme 
peril.  It  seems  incredible,  but  the  statement  is  soberly  made  by  re- 
liable authority,  that  about  two  thousand  vessels  were  more  or  less 
completely  wrecked,  causing  over  two  millions  and  a  half  dollars' 
worth  of  damage,  every  year,  in  the  turbulent  and  treat  herons  pass- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


489 


age  of  Hell  Gate.  Some  writers  feel  squeamish  about  the  name,  and 
have  informed  a  less  knowing  public  that  "  hell  "  iu  Dutch  meaus 
beautiful,  and  "gate"  means  a  pass,  so  that  this  really  should  be 
understood  as  rather  a  celestial  designation  than  one  applying  to  the 
opposite  place.  But  Dutch  sailors  had  not  much  of  an  eye  for  beauties 
of  landscape,  and  the  ugly  rocks  and  dangerous  eddies  which  could 
cause  ruin  to  thousands  of  vessels  in  later  days  would  be  likely  to 
get  from  them  a  very  blunt  appellation.  "  Hell  "  is  the  German  word 
for  clear  and  bright;  but  in  Dutch  the  word  means  exactly  what  it 
does  in  English,  and  "  gat "  means  a  hole.  So  that  if  we  are  thrown 
back  upon  what  the  Dutch  word  "  Hellegat  "  really  signifies,  we  shall 
come  out  worse  than  ever,  and  must  resign  ourselves  to  the  harsh 
term  "  Hell-hole." 

Although  the  mad  rush  and  whirl  of  waters  here  had  caused  dismay 
to  sailors  of  all  sorts  and  nationalities,  from  the  days  of  doughty 
Oloff  the  Dreamer  and  his  crew,  until  far  into  the  present  century,  no 
attempts  were  made  to  deal  with  the  problem  of  improving  the  chan- 
nel by  removing  the  obstructions  until  1851.  A  French  engineer,  M. 
Maillefert,  proposed  to  destroy  the  rocks  by  a  process  of  surface  blast- 
ing, and  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce  were  impressed  with 
the  feasibility  of  his  plan.  He  estimated  the  cost  at  $15,000,  of  which 
Henry  Grinnell  furnished  one-third;  and  permission  was  granted  by 
the  Federal  Government  to  do  the  work.  Charges  of  gunpowder  of 
one  hundred  and  twrenty-five  pounds  each  were  incased  in  tin  canisters 
and  placed  on  the  top  of  the  rocks  under  water.  They  were  connected 
by  wires  with  batteries  on  the  shore  and  exploded  by  electricity,  the 
weight  of  the  superincumbent  water  helping  to  increase  the  destruc- 
tive effects  upon  the  rocks.  But  after  all  not  much  was  gained  by 
these  explosions;  jagged  points  were  removed,  and  several  feet  >f 
depth  gained  over  many  of  the  smaller  reefs,  but  the  great  solid  rock 
beneath  was  not  disturbed,  and  no  greater  depth  whatever  secured 
on  such  reefs  as  Hallett's  Point  and  Flood  Rock.  But  a  fine  feature  of 
the  undertaking  was  that  the  expenses  were  kept  within  the  estimate, 
only  $13,681  having  been  spent.  In  1866  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment took  hold  of  the  work  in  earnest,  placing  it  under  the  engineer- 
ing care  of  General  John  Newton.  In  attacking  the  smaller  rocks  his 
method  was  to  drill  them  from  a  scow  anchored  over  them;  in  this 
way  powerful  explosives  were  introduced  into  their  center  and  they 
were  successfully  shattered  so  that  a  depth  of  twenty-six  fed  was 
attained.  In  July  1 869  Hallett's  reef  was  attacked.  The  plan  here 
was  to  advance  from  the  land  side  with  a  cofferdam  to  keep  back  the 
water.  A  shaft  was  then  sunk  and  galleries  excavated,  radiating 
thence  in  every  direction,  whose  pillars  and  roofs  were  stocked  with 
explosives.  Flood  Bock  was  assailed  in  the  same  manner,  only,  being 
much  larger,  two  shafts  and  a  double  set  of  galleries  w7ere  mined.  The 
detailed  account  of  these  delicate  and  skillful  operations  belongs  to 


490 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


another  chapter,  and  will  there  be  fully  given.  On  September  24, 
1 876,  t  he  mines  under  Hallett's  reef  were  exploded,  furnishing  a  splen- 
did display  as  the  columns  of  water  rose  up  into  the  air,  but  causing 
no  damage  by  the  shock  on  land.  Immediately  hereafter  work  was 
begun  on  Flood  Bock,  which  was  blown  up  on  October  10,  1885.  The 
total  cost  of  the  Hallett's  Point  work  was  KS1.002;  and  that  of  Flood 
Hock,  although  a  five  times  larger  blast,  was  sl0li..~>09. 

While  this  useful  work  had  been  going  on  beneath  the  waters  at  one 
end  of  the  harbor  of  New  York,  a  splendid,  ornamental  structure  had 
been  in  preparation  for  the  entrance  at  the  other.  Soon  after  the 
establishment  of  the  French  Republic  in  1870,  a  design  was  conceived 
at  the  suggestion  of  M.  Laboulaye,  to  give  some  substantial  expres- 
sion to  the  cordiality  of  feeling  between  itself  and  the  American  Re- 
public. It  should  be  a  memorial  also  to  the  relations  of  friendship 
between  the  two  nations  dating  from  the  beginning  of  American  In- 


HELL   GATE  EXPLOSION. 


dependence.  A  French-American  Union  was  formed  in  France  and 
a  million  francs  ($200,000)  raised  by  one  hundred  thousand  subscrib- 
ers. The  monument  selected  was  a  colossal  figure  typical  of  Liberty 
enlightening  the  world,  to  be  placed  in  the  harbor  of  New  York,  con- 
spicuous by  day  and  by  night  to  entering  mariners  and  voyagers.  The 
great  statue  was  necessarily  slow  in  building.  The  sculptor  selected 
was  Frederic  Auguste  Bartholdi.  the  author  of  the  Lafayette  statue 
in  Fnion  Square.  On  his  visit  to  New  York  in  connection  with  its 
unveiling  in  L876,  as  he  sailed  up  the  bay  his  eye  fell  on  liedlow's 
Island,  which  he  at  once  selected  as  the  proper  site  for  the  Statue  of 
Liberty.  It  then  became  the  object  of  the  American  people  to  prepare 
a  pedestal  worthy  of  tin1  figure  to  be  presented,  and  under  the  leader- 
ship of  a  committee  of  which  William  M.  Evarts  was  chairman,  s:>00,- 
000  was  raised  for  that  purpose.  The  hand  holding  the  torch,  with  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


491 


forearm,  were  sent  to  America  in  1  s 7 < ; ,  exhibited  at  the  Centennial 
Exhibition  in  Philadelphia,  and  afterward  placed  in  Madison  Square, 
opposite  the  Worth  monument,  where  Farragut's  statue  stands  new. 
On  July  1,  1880,  the  noble  work  of  art  was  formally  made  over  to  the 
American  Minister.  The  statue  was  temporarily  set  up  in  Paris,  and 
the  unveiling  and  presentation  were  made  the  occasion  of  brilliant 
exercises.  In  April,  1883,  work  was  begun  on  Bed  low's  Island  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  pedestal,  the  designs  accepted  being  those  of 
the  celebrated  architect  Richard  M.  Hunt.  Lack  of  funds  occasionally 
interrupted  the  construction,  but  the  people  were  aroused  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  work  by  powerful  appeals  throilgh  the  press  and  by  in- 
fluential individuals,  and  early  in  1886  the  committee  were  enabled  to 
announce  that  they  were  ready  to  place  the  statue  on  its  base.  It  had 
been  in  the  country  for  nearly  a  year.  In  May,  1885,  the  figure,  re- 
duced again  to  its  several  plates,  was  stored  aboard  the  Isere,  a  trans- 
port steamer  furnished  by  the  French  Government,  and  on  June  17, 
it  arrived  in  New  York  harbor.  Several  American  war  vessels  met 
the  Isere  at  the  Narrows  and  escorted  her  up  the  Bay,  while  hundreds 
of  other  vessels  followed  in  their  wake.  The  American  committee,  with 
guests,  among  whom  was  Secretary  of  the  Navy  William  C.  Whitney, 
and  the  French  representatives,  landed  on  Bedlow's  Island,  where 
French  choral  societies  furnished  a  choir  of  three  hundred  voices  for 
the  singing.  Next  the  party  crossed  over  to  the  Battery  and  a  mili- 
tary procession  escorted  them  to  the  City  Hall  where  a  luncheon  was 
served  in  the  Governor's  room.  But  all  this  enthusiasm  and  festivity 
were  greatly  eclipsed  on  October  28,  1880,  when  the  colossus  had  been 
placed  in  its  position,  the  work  upon  it  completed,  and  all  was  ready 
for  the  final  and  formal  unveiling.  It  was  another  "  Eighth  Wonder  " 
of  the  world,  there  being  now  several  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York,  be- 
ginning with  the  Fourth  Avenue  Tunnel,  including  the  Brooklyn 
Bridge,  and  ending  with  this  last  addition.  The  torch  blazed  away 
more  than  300  feet  above  the  waters  of  the  harbor,  the  pedestal 
being  155  feet  from  foundation  to  the  top,  and  the  figure  of 
Liberty  measuring  151  feet  from  the  hem  of  her  garments  sweeping 
the  pedestal  to  the  top  of  the  torch.  As  some  one  remarks,  the  Colos- 
sus of  Rhodes,  with  his  somewhat  ungraceful  straddle,  was  a  small 
boy  compared  to  this  maiden  with  her  graceful  pose.  Forty  people 
can  stand  in  her  head,  even  if  forty  tales  can  not  proceed  from  it  as 
they  did  from  the  head  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  The  gigantic  torch  lifted 
up  with  such  apparent  ease,  can  comfortably  accommodate  twelve 
persons  without  crowding.  The  plates  completing  the  exterior  are 
riveted  together,  and  the  whole  is  braced  powerfully  by  ribs  of  steel 
within,  calculated  to  withstand  the  force  of  a  gale  blowing  at  the  rate 
of  one  hundred  miles  an  hour. 

On  the  day  set  for  the  unveiling  ceremonies.  October  28.  1886, 
twenty  thousand  people  marched  past  a  reviewing  stand  on  Madison 


492 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Square,  where  President  Cleveland  sal  to  see  them  pass.  It  was  un- 
happily a  dreary  day,  a  drizzling  rain  in  the  air  and  endless  mud 

under  foot.  The 
parade  marched 
down  Broadway  i<» 
the  Battery.  Later 
in  the  day  t  he 
President  was  tak- 
en to  Bedlow's, 
now  Liberty.  Is- 
land. Distinguish- 
ed Frenchmen  had 
come  over  to  honor 
the  occasion;  the 
P  r  i  in  e  Minister, 
t  li  e  Minister  of 
Public  Instruc- 
tion, members  of 
the  Senate  and  of 
the  ( chamber  of 
Deputies,  and  also 
the  Vice-President 
of  the  Municipal 
Council  of  Paris. 
(  omte  1  )e  Lesseps, 
the  hero  of  the 
Suez  canal,  once 
m  o  r  e  presented 
the  statue  in  the 
name  of  France, 
and  William  M. 
Evarts  spoke  for 
the  American  peo- 
ple, and  presented 

the  p  e  dest  a  I. 
President  Cleve- 
land accepted  the 
ii i ft  from  bot  h  in  a 
f  e  w  well-chosen 
words.  Then  M. 
Bartholdi  removed 
the  veil  from  the 
head,  and  cannons  and  steamship  whistles  made  the  moment  hide- 
ously hilarious,  rendering  the  prayer  by  Dr.  Richard  S.  Btorrs  as  the 
literary  exercises  commenced,  perfectly  inaudible  to  those  even  near- 
est to  him.    M.  Lefevre  delivered  an  oration  in  French,  and  Chauncey 


LIBERTY   ENLIGHTENING  THE  WORLD. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


493 


M.  Depew  another  in  English,  and  (his  completed  the  ceremonies. 
The  rain  prevented  the  fine  pyrotechnic  displays  intended  to  have 
made  the  night  brilliant,  but  all  1  he  shipping  in  t  he  harbor  was  bright 
with  lights  on  masts  and  rigging. 

On  February  4,  of  this  same  year  (1886),  a  strike  of  horsecar  drivers 
and  conductors  took  the  public  and  the  directors  of  several  companies 
by  surprise.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  gangs  of  men  who 
were  to  begin  the  day's  runs,  failed  to  put  in  an  appearance,  and  when 
the  hours  for  going  to  downtown  offices  arrived,  many  thousands  of 
citizens  were  astonished  to  find  no  cars  running.  There  were  of 
course  the  elevated  roads,  but  plenty  of  people  still  utilized  the  horse- 
cars,  especially  the  Broadway  line,  and  this,  as  well  as  the  University 
Place,  the  Fourth,  Sixth,  and  Seventh  Avenue  lines,  were  all  "tied  up." 
The  demand  was  for  a  day  of  twelve  hours,  instead  of  the  excessively 
long  time  of  fourteen  or  even  seventeen  hours.  The  strike  was  so 
quietly  and  wisely  organized,  and  the  demand  was  so  reasonable,  that 
the  companies  all  acceded  to  the  men's  demands,  and  therefore  there 
was  no  violence  whatever  on  the  part  of  the  men,  and  no  attempt  to 
place  other  employees  on  the  part  of  the  directors.  At  two  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  an  agreement  was  came  to,  and  by  four  o'clock,  or 
twelve  hours  after  its  commencement,  the  strike  was  off  and  cars 
began  to  run  again,  amid  the  cheers  of  the  men  and  of  a  sympathetic 
public. 

The  mention  of  the  Broadway  line  recalls  another  episode  in  munic- 
ipal affairs  that  bids  the  citizen  of  New  York  hide  his  head  in  shame. 
Stages  were  still  running  in  bewildering  multitudes  over  the  busy 
thoroughfare  as  late  as  1884.  Then  a  horsecar  line  was  talked  of; 
but  it  awoke  a  horror  in  many  minds  that  Broadway  should  be 
blocked  up  and  hampered  with  cars  running  on  rails,  which  could  not 
dodge  with  the  marvelous  skill  that  the  stage  drivers  had  acquired, 
but  must  keep  rigidly  on  their  undeviatiug  course.  Nevertheless, 
somebody  saw  big  profits  in  the  enterprise,  which  indeed  were  sub- 
sequently realized,  as  the  cars  on  Broadway  are  constantly  crowded, 
no  matter  how  rapidly  one  is  sent  after  the  other.  To  the  surprise  of 
all,  a  railroad  company  operating  another  line  received  from  the  Al- 
dermen a  franchise  to  build  a  railway  on  Broadway.  All  went  well 
for  a  year  or  so.  But  a  lady,  prominent  in  social  aud  literary  circles, 
was  robbed  by  burglars,  and  pawn  tickets  traced  some  of  the  articles 
to  the  pawnshop  kept  by  one  of  the  Aldermen.  She  pushed  the  case 
and  it  was  discovered  that  the  Alderman's  relations  to  the  articles 
were  not  altogether  innocent.  One  discovery  led  to  another,  and 
finally  the  secret  came  out  why  so  generous  a  donation  had  been 
made  to  the  Broadway  railroad,  for  which  some  companies  had  offered 
to  pay  a  large  sum  to  the  city.  A  sum  of  $300,000  had  been  expended 
by  the  successful  company  in  bribes,  about  .$20,000  apiece  being  the 
"  price  "  of  the  city  fathers.    Henry  M.  Jaehne.  the  pawnbroker,  was 


4<H 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


indicted  in  December,  1885,  and  in  May,  1886,  he  was  convicted  and 
sentenced  to  serve  nine  years  in  State's  prison.  The  sentence  w  as  ap- 
pealed from,  but  confirmed  in  October,  and  The  Alderman  w  as  sent  to 
Sing  Sing.  The  trial  of  Alderman  Arthur  J.  McQuade  took  place  in 
December,  1SN(>.  The  difficulty  of  proving  the  actual  circumstances 
of  a  bribe,  made  the  results  in  punishment  thus  barren,  but  the  ex- 
posure and  disgrace  broke  dow  n  the  president  of  the  Broadw  ay  road, 
and  he  died  not  long  after. 

As  the  time  approached  when  the  nation  would  be  privileged  to 
celebrate  the  accomplishment  of  a  full  century  of  Federal  Union,  the 
people  of  New  York  City  made  up  their  minds  to  celebrate  it  in  a  man- 
ner worthy  of  that  great  occasion,  and  of  the  magnificent  metropolis 
which  owed  its  marvelous  growth  and  prosperity  to  the  success  of  the 
Government  established  in  17S9.  It  was  not  forgotten  that  in  its 
"day  of  small  things,"  when  Chambers  Street  was  its  utmost  limit 
of  habitations,  New  York  was  the  Federal  Capital,  and  that  here  the 
glorious  experiment  was  put  feebly,  but  hopefully,  into  operation.  In 
New  York,  therefore,  should  occur  the  most  splendid  and  elaborate 
celebration  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  inauguration  of 
Washington  as  President  of  the  United  States  on  April  30,  17S9. 
Preparations  for  the  festivity  were  made  years  in  advance.  The  idea 
originated  with  the  New  York  Historical  Society  at  a  meeting  held 
in  March,  1884.  It  was  seconded  in  an  effective  manner  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  L88(>.  A  general  committee  of  two 
hundred  gentlemen  was  appointed,  with  Hamilton  Fish  as  chairman, 
and  this  committee  divided  itself  into  ten  sub-committees,  charged 
with  as  many  different  main  details  of  the  celebration.  These  com- 
mittees were  appointed  and  began  their  work  in  1887.  It  was  resolved 
to  devote  three  days  to  the  celebration,  April  29.  30.  and  May  1.  The 
people  were  requested  to  decorate  their  dwellings  and  places  of  busi- 
ness with  Hags  and  bunting,  and  appropriate  devices,  and  there  was 
a  universal  response.  Never  before  had  the  city  presented  such  an 
appearance.  Every  business  st  reet  was  one  mass  of  colors.  A  feature 
never  seen  before  was  the  strips  of  bunting  a  foot  or  two  wide,  divided 
into  three  equal  stripes  of  red,  white,  and  blue,  each  field  strewn  with 
stars  innumerable;  it  made  very  effective  material  for  decorating  the 
fronts  of  houses.  The  stars  and  stripes  of  course  prevailed,  but  many 
houses  displayed  flags  with  three  broad  bands  of  the  tricolor,  thereby 
unconsciously  reproducing  the  first  flag  (of  the  Dutch  Republic)  that 
waved  over  the  city.  A  terrible  downpour  of  rain  on  Saturday.  April 
27.  unfortunately  spoiled  many  of  the  cheaper  materials  used  in  the 
decorations,  as  it  made  the  colors  run  into  each  other.  Hut. 
nevertheless,  the  array  maintained  itself  in  pretty  good  shape 
everywhere.  No  section  of  the  city  formed  an  exception.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  rightly  dwells  on  the  significance  of  this  fact.  "In  all 
the  poorer  quarters  of  the  city,"  he  remarks,  "  where  the  population 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


495 


was  overwhelmingly  of  foreign  birth  or  origin,  the  national  flag, 
the  stars  and  stripes,  hung  from  every  window,  and  the  picture 
of  Washington  was  displayed  wherever  there  was  room.  Flag 
and  portrait  alike  were  tokens  that    .    .    .    they  already  chal- 


WALL  STREET  SCENE  OP  EXERCISES  IN  1889. 


lenged  as  their  own,  American  nationality  and  American  life, 
glorying  in  the  nation's  past  atfid  confident  in  its  future."  An  im- 
pressive evidence  came  to  the  writer  on  Sunday,  April  28,  the  day  be- 
fore the  celebrations  began,  that  in  its  century  of  existence,  with  all 
its  vast  strides  in  power,  wealth,  influence,  territory,  such  as  not  the 


496 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


maddest  fancy  had  dared  conceive  at  the  beginning  in  L789 — the  Ke- 
public  had  not  yet  exceeded  the  span  of  life  sometimes  accorded  to  a 
human  being:  for  on  that  day  lie  was  introduced  to  a  lady  who  cele- 
brated her  one  hundreth  birthday!  Remembering  that  four  years 
before,  at  Grant's  '"funeral,  the  country  stood  amazed  at  the  440.0(H) 
visitors  accommodated  by  the  metropolis  with  comparative  ease,  vin- 
dicating the  wisdom  of  selecting  New  York  for  his  tomb,  it  may  here 
be  said  as  a  last  preliminary  observation,  that  no  less  than  one  million 
of  people  visited  the  city  during  the  Washington  centennial. 

The  aim  was  to  reproduce,  in  as  many  particulars  as  possible,  the 
series  of  events  that  attended  the  inauguration  of  Washington  in 
L789.  President  Harrison,  representing  his  earliest  predeces- 
sor in  the  office,  took  train  at  Washington  soon  after  midnight  for 
Elizabeth  on  .Monday,  April  20.  Thence  lie  and  his  party  were  driven 
in  carriages  along  the  old  road  to  Elizabethport.  The  committee  of 
reception  here  met  him  and  he  avus  taken  on  board  the  United  States 
dispatch  boat,  t  he  1  >espatch,  while  t he  rest  of  t he  distinguished  com- 
pany followed  on  the  steamers  Monmouth  and  Shins.  These  boats 
passed  through  two  lines  of  warships  anchored  between  Uobbins'  Reef 
and  Liberty  Island,  the  yards  being  manned  and  all  the  colors  dis- 
played. The  Despatch  came  to  anchor  in  mid-stream  opposite  Wall 
Street.  Washington  had  been  conveyed  all  the  way  from  Elizabeth- 
port  to  the  foot  of  Wall  Street  in  a  barge  rowed  by  twelve  pilots,  and 
steered  by  Captain  Knndall.  This  would  have  been  too  slow  a  pro- 
ceeding in  these  days;  so  it  was  only  imitated  to  the  extent  of  convey- 
ing President  Harrison  from  the  Despatch  to  the  Wall  Street  ferry 
slip  in  a  barge  rowed  by  twelve  pilots,  commanded  by  Captain  Am- 
brose Snow.  As  Governor  Clinton  and  .Mayor  Varick  had  received 
Washington  here  in  1789,  so  Governor  Hill  received  Harrison,  at- 
tended by  .Mayor  ( Irani  and  other  officials  of  State  and  city.  A  lunch- 
eon was  served  at  the  Lawyers'  Clnb  in  the  Equitable  Life  Insurance 
building,  after  which  the  President  was  driven  to  the  City  Ball.  As 
he  passed  up  t  he  steps  a  multitude  of  little  uirls  st  rowed  his  path  with 
(lowers,  and  at  t  he  top  be  listened  to  an  address,  spoken  by  a  member 
of  the  Senior  Class  of  the  Normal  College;  this  part  of  the  exercises 
being  in  imitation  of  the  reception  given  to  Washington  as  he  passed 
through  Trenton,  X.  .1.  The  afternoon  was  spent  in  a  reception  to  the 
people  by  the  President  in  the  Governor's  Room,  where  he  is  said  to 
have  shaken  hands  or  bowed  to  five  thousand  people.  In  t he  evening 
there  was  a  ball  at  the  .Metropolitan  Opera  House,  where  a  notable 
feature  was  a  "  quadrille  of  honor."  participated  in  exclusively  by 
descendants  of  families  who  were  present  at  Washington's  inaugural 
ball.  The  second  day.  Tuesday.  Aprii  30,  the  centennial  anniversary 
day  proper,  was  ushered  in  at  sunrise  by  salvos  of  artillery.  In  the 
forenoon  religious  services  were  held  in  St.  Paul's  chapel,  as  they  were 
held  in  the  identical  building  in  1789.   Rev.  Dr.  Morgan  Dix,  rector  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


497 


Trinity,  and  Bishop  Littlejohn,  of  Long  Island,  read  special  prayers 
and  the  regular  service,  while  Bishop  Potter,  of  New  York,  occupied 
the  place  of  the  first  Bishop  of  New  York,  Samuel  Provoost,  of  a  cen- 
tury before,  and  preached  the  sermon.  On  the  preceding  Sunday,  ser- 
vices commemorative  of  the  occasion  had  been  held  in  the  churches 
of  all  denominations.  The  literary  exercises  of  the  day  were  held  at 
the  sub-treasury  building,  the  site  of  the  Federal  Hall  of  old,  a  plat- 
form having  been  built  over  the  broad  stone  stairs,  and  the  partici- 
pants and  guests  grouping  themselves  about  the  statue  of  Washing- 
ton in  the  front  and  center.  The  President  sat  in  the  chair  Wash- 
ington had  occupied  in  the  Senate  Chamber  a  hundred  years  before, 
and  the  Bible  upon  which  he  had  taken  the  oath  of  office  was  also 
placed  prominently  on  exhibition.  After  a  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Richard  S.  Storrs,  of  Brooklyn,  a  poem  was  read,  written  for  the  oc- 
casion by  John  G.  Whittier,  entitled  "  The  Vow  of  Washington,"  after 
which  the  oration  was  delivered  by  Chauncey  M.  Depew.  A  short 
address  was  then  made  by  President  Harrison,  and  Archbishop  Cor- 
rigan,  of  the  Catholic  Church,  pronounced  the  benediction.  Then  the 
President  and  party,  and  the  State  and  city  officials,  were  driven  to  a 
stand  on  Madison  Square  to  review  the  parade  of  troops.  The  march 
was  up  Broadway,  to  Waverly  Place,  to  Fifth  Avenue,  to  Fourteenth 
Street,  around  Union  Square  to  Fifteenth  Street,  to  Fifth  Avenue,  to 
Fifty-seventh  Street.  The  first  division  was  composed  of  the  West 
Point  and  Naval  Cadets,  and  United  States  infantry,  cavalry,  and  ar- 
tillery. The  second  division  consisted  of  the  militia  of  the  several 
states,  twenty -three  of  them  being  represented,  each  detachment 
being  headed  by  Governor  and  staff,  and  following  in  alphabetical 
order.  New  York  State  had  13,223  men  in  line,  led  by  the  gal lan 
Seventh.  The  third  division  presented  an  impressive  appearance, 
being  made  up  exclusively  of  posts  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic, no  less  than  ten  thousand  men  being  in  line;  the  State  having  ap- 
propriated 120,000  for  the  transportation  of  posts  from  a  distance. 
The  evening  was  made  brilliant  with  pyrotechnic  displays  in  all  the 
city  parks,  from  the  Battery  to  Mount  Morris  at  One  Hundred  and 
Twenty-fourth  Street  and  Madison  Avenue.  In  Madison  Square  an 
open  air  concert  was  given  by  German  singing  societies,  assisted  by  a 
band  of  seventy-five  pieces.  Two  thousand  voices  sang  under  the  di- 
rection of  Theodore  Thomas.  The  concert  wTas  opened  with  the  render- 
ing of  a  selection  from  Wagner's  Tannhauser;  the  Hallelujah  Chorus 
from  HandeFs  Oratorio  of  the  Messiah  was  given  by  the  chorus  and 
band  together.  At  the  close  the  band  and  choir  struck  up  the  hymn 
America,  but  no  sooner  had  the  first  strains  sounded  forth  when  the 
whole  immense  throng  that  crowded  the  Square  and  its  adjoining 
streets  joined  in  the  familiar  tune  with  an  effect  that  was  indescriba- 
ble. There  was  also  a  banquet  in  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  that 
evening,  attended  by  the  President  and  ex-President  Cleveland,  at 


498 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


which  eight  hundred  quests  sat  down  at  twenty-six  tables,  under  the 
eves  of  five  thousand  spectators.  The  third  and  last  day.  Wednesday, 
.May  L,  opened  again  with  the  booming  of  artillery.  The  feature  <>f 
tins  day  was  a  civic  parade,  in  which  seventy-five  thousand  people 
participated.  The  President  reviewed  it  from  the  stand  at  Madison 
Square,  and  the  line  of  march  was  along  the  same  streets,  but  in  the 
opposite  direction,  from  Fifty-seventh  Street  down  as  far  as  Canal 
Street  and  Broadway,   The  first  division  was  educational,  led  by  stu- 


THE  WASHINGTON   MEMORIAL  ARCH. 


dents  from  t  he  City  College,  Columbia  University,  and  the  University 
of  New  York.  There  were  several  floats,  the  historical  ones  represent- 
ing John  Smith.  Henry  Hudson  and  his  crew,  W  illiam  I'enn  and  the 
Quakers,  Washington  crossing  t  he  I  >elaware,  and  the  Inauguration  of 
17N!».  The  press,  kindergarten  schools,  trades,  and  allegorical  tab- 
leaux, also  were  represented  upon  floats.  In  the  afternoon  President 
Harrison  and  party  returned  to  Washington,  while  t  he  day  was  closed 
by  a  banquet  in  Brooklyn  and  a  reception  by  the  Bar  Association  to 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


499 


the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  The  parades 
on  these  two  days  passed  under  three  Triumphal  Arches  on  Fifth 
Avenue.  It  was  resolved  as  a  permanent  memorial  of  the  occasion 
to  replace  the  one  at  the  foot  of  the  Avenue  in  Washington  Square 
with  a  marble  arch.  The  people  generously  responded,  and  the  cor- 
nerstone was  laid  on  Decoration  Day,  1890,  by  the  Grand  Master  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  John  W.  Vrooman.  It  was  completed  in  1892, 
but  not  formally  received  by  the  city  until  May  4,  1895,  in  order  to 
await  the  completion  of  the  sculptures.  The  arch  is  70  feet  high, 
adorned  with  several  groups  of  sculpture  and  bas-reliefs,  and  is  con- 
structed of  the  finest  dolomite  marble.  Its  cost  was  $128,000.  It 
bears  two  inscriptions,  one  indicating  the  purpose  of  the  arch  or  the 
occasion  it  commemorates;  the  other  records  in  imperishable  charac- 
ters that  noble  sentence  of  Washington  which  rallied  and  raised  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  unselfish  devotion  the  patriotism  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  1788,  resulting  in  the  instrument  which  honestly 
meant  to  secure  the  good  of  the  whole  country.  The  words  are:  "  Let 
us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and  honest  can  repair.  The 
event  is  in  the  hand  of  God."  And  so  New  York  City,  with  all  the  rest 
of  the  country,  entered  upon  the  second  century  of  Federal  Govern- 
ment, with  homage  to  the  past  and  gratitude  for  the  present,  as  read 
in  large  characters  in  all  the  details  of  those  three  days  of  unpar- 
alleled, dignified,  appropriate,  in  every  way  satisfying  and  inspiring, 
celebration.  The  city  richly  deserves  the  commentary  of  one  who 
knows  its  virtues  and  its  foibles  as  well  as  any  man  alive,  and  whom 
we  have  already  cited:  "  For  all  its  motley  population,  there  is  a  most 
wholesome  underlying  spirit  of  patriotism  in  the  city,  if  it  can  only  be 
aroused.  Few  will  question  this  who  saw  the  great  processions  on 
land  and  water,  and  the  other  ceremonies  attendant  upon  the  cele- 
bration of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  beginning  of  Federal 
Government." 

After  the  overthrow  of  the  Tweed  Ring,  there  was  for  many  years  a 
succession  of  Mayors,  selected  from  among  the  very  best  citizens. 
William  F.  Havemeyer,  who  had  already  served  in  that  capacity  in 
1845  and  in  1848,  and  who  took  a  prominent  part  in  breaking  up  the 
infamous  Ring,  was  nominated  for  Mayor  in  the  autumn  of  1872,  and 
elected  by  an  overwhelming  vote.  He  did  not  live  to  complete  his 
term,  being  stricken  with  apoplexy  on  November  30,  1874,  within  a 
month  of  its  termination,  when  his  successor,  Mr.  William  H.  Wick- 
ham,  was  already  elected.  Mr.  Wickham  was  of  an  old  Long  Island 
family,  and  had  also  come  prominently  before  the  people  in  the  effort 
to  down  Tweed  and  his  fellow  thieves.  It  is  still  remembered  how  he 
filled  the  city  offices  with  men  of  the  highest  order  of  ability  and  char- 
acter, such  as  the  whole  nation  haAre  since  delighted  to  honor,  includ- 
ing William  C.  Whitney,  General  Fitz-John  Porter,  and  Dr.  E.  G. 
Janeway.   An  extraordinary  event  marked  the  close  of  his  adminis- 


500 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


nation,  a  banquet  tendered  him  by  leading  citizens  of  every  party  as 
a  mark  of  their  approbation  of  his  conduct  of  affairs.  Mr.  Smith  Ely. 
Jr.,  who  assumed  the  Mayoralty  on  January  I,  1ST",  was  prominent 
as  a  leather  merchant.  Antagonism  to  Tweed  was  still  the  badge  of 
merit.  As  County  Supervisor,  Mr.  Ely  had  fiercely  opposed  the  County 
Court  House  job,  the  chief  mine  of  the  robbers'  wealth.  He  had  been 
State  Senator  twenty  years  before,  and  at  the  time  of  his  election  as 
.Mayor  was  a  member  of  Congress,  resigning  his  seat  to  accept  the 
municipal  office.  In  the  years  1ST!)  and  1SS0.  Mr.  Edward  Cooper,  son 
of  the  philanthropist  and  merchant,  served  as  Mayor,  his  father  still 
livingat  t  he  time  to  enjoy  the  distinction  put  upon  him.  He.  too.  had 
been  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Seventy,  who  humbled  the  Tweed 
King.  No  name  stands  higher  among  Mayors  or  citizens  for  high-toned 
character,  integrity  and  ability  of  administration  in  business  or  offi- 
cial position,  than  that  of  -Mr.  W  illiam  R.  Grace,  born  in  Ireland  and 
a  distinguished  member  of  the  Church  prevalent  in  his  country.  He 
w;is  twice  elected  Mayor,  serving  in  1881  and  18S2.  and  again  in  the 
years  1885  and  1886.  Since  that  time,  although  immersed  in  the  im- 
mense interests  of  a  great  shipping  business,  having  connections 
mainly  with  South  America,  his  voice  has  often  been  heard  in  support 
of  clean  and  upright  government,  whatever  party  was  most  likely  to 
provide  it  for  the  people,  entirely  regardless  of  his  own  party  affilia- 
tions, which  are  perfectly  well  known.  Mr.  Franklin  Bdson,  .Mayor  in 
the  interval  between  Mr.  Grace's  terms,  or  during  the  years  1883  and 
1884,  was  a  native  of  Vermont,  started  in  business  at  Albany  in  1852, 
but  came  to  New  York  after  the  w  ar.  He  became  prominent  in  com- 
mercial circles,  being  three  times  made  President  of  the  Produce 
Exchange.  During  his  term,  in  1881.  the  charter  which  Tweed  had 
bribed  through  the  Legislature  in  order  to  get  a  control  still  more 
absolute  of  the  funds  of  a  helpless  public,  received  the  final  touches 
which  made  it  a  very  excellent  measure,  being  based  upon  a  reason- 
able recognition  of  the  right  of  the  people  to  home  rule.  For  purposes 
entirely  sinister,  Tweed  had  so  framed  its  provisions  that  all  control 
of  the  city  from  Albany  was  to  be  abolished  by  it  .  t  he  heads  of  depart- 
ments to  be  appointed  by  the  Mayor  and  to  hold  office  longer  than 
he;  the  Comptroller  and  Corporation  Counsel  were  also  to  be  the 
Mayor's  appointees,  and  all  salaries  altogether  dependent  on  his  will. 
"After  being  changed  and  amended  for  ten  years,  it  finally,  in  18S4. 
was  restored  on  substantially  the  old  basis,  namely,  the  placing  of 
responsibility  for  the  government  of  the  city  in  the  hands  of  only  one 
set  of  officials,  instead  of  so  distributing  it  that  it  could  easily  be 
shifted,  by  bestowing  great  executive  power  on  the  Mayor,  and  by 
making  the  heads  of  departments  responsible  to  him  alone."  Toward 
the  close  of  Mr.  Grace's  second  term,  the  Mayoralty  contest  presented 

a  curious  three-cornered  tight,  in  which  an  element,  little  suspected 

to  have  such  power,  developed  an  uncommonly  large  vote.  The  labor 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


501 


agitations,  awakening  hostility  to  capitalists  and  the  existing  panics 
as  both  equally  under  their  control,  had  given  rise  to  a  Labor  Party, 
and  it  made  Mr.  Henry  George  the  candidate  for  .Mayor.  It  was  de- 
sired that  regardless  of  party  the  Mends  of  stable  government  should 
present  a  united  front  against  the  anarchistic  tendencies  of  the  new 
party,  but  the  Republicans  refused  to  heed  the  suggestion,  and  nomi- 
nated Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt  on  a  strictly-drawn  partisan  platform. 
Tammany  was  thereby  driven  to  make  an  unexceptionable  selection 
for  their  candidate,  on  whom  wiser  Republicans  could  unite  with 
them  for  the  good  of  the  city.  They,  therefore,  made  Mr.  Abraham 
S.  Hewitt  their  standard  bearer,  who  had  never  had  any  kind  of  asso- 
ciation with  the  Hall  before,  nor  has  had  since,  and  who  actually 
served  on  the  Committee  of  Seventy  of  1894,  having  for  its  aim  Tam- 
many's overthrow.  The  election  proved  a  surprise,  Mr.  Hewitt  having 
90,512  votes;  Mr.  George,  68,110,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt,  00,435.  Mr. 
Hewitt's  candidacy,  no  doubt,  alone  saved  the  day  for  the  Democratic 
party.  He  was  the  son-in-law  of  Peter  Cooper,  and  with  the  latter, 
and  his  brother-in-law,  the  ex-Mayor,  formed  the  great  iron  firm  of 
Cooper,  Hewitt  &  Company.  At  the  next  Mayoralty  election,  how- 
ever, one  of  Tammany's  own,  Hugh  J.  Grant,  got  firmly  into  the 
Mayor's  seat,  keeping  it  a  second  term,  and  preparing  for  the  succes- 
sion of  another  Tammany  man,  until  by  excess  of  revelry  in  the  power 
enjoyed  things  came  to  a  pass,  soon  to  be  related,  which  again  over- 
threAV  Tammany,  as  it  had  been  in  1872.  Grant  had  been  Tammany's 
candidate  in  1884,  when  the  better  element  in  the  party  rallied  around 
William  R.  Grace.  He  was  defeated.  In  1888  Tammany  had  no  special 
use  for  Hewitt  any  longer,  and  the  Republicans  must  have  their  own 
man  again,  the  result  being  that  Grant  received  114,111  votes;  '  r- 
hardt,  the  Republican  candidate,  73,037,  and  Hewitt  71,979. 

Many  people  in  New  York  are  yet  accustomed  to  date  events  in  their 
personal  history  or  in  the  larger  sphere  of  the  general  history  of  city, 
state,  country,  or  the  world,  by  reference  to  the  "  blizzard  "  of  1888. 
And  it  certainly  was  a  unique  occurrence,  full  of  startling  lessons.  It 
fell  on  Monday,  March  12,  but  covered  parts  of  days  before  and  after. 
On  Sunday  afternoon  and  evening  there  was  a  heavy  downpour  of 
rain,  so  that,  the  streets  were  submerged  under  an  inch  or  two  of 
water.  Suddenly  into  this  descended  a  heavy  fall  of  snow,  so  thick 
and  so  persistent  that  it  made  with  the  rain  water  a  complete  covering 
of  slush.  Again,  as  suddenly,  there  came  a  severe  frost,  which  froze 
the  slush  into  one  solid  cake  of  ice,  and  the  snow  continuing  and  the 
gale  increasing,  citizens,  when  they  awoke  upon  Monday  morning, 
found  mountainous  drifts  filling  the  streets.  Not  a  horsecar  could 
move,  and  even  the  elevated  railways  were  paralyzed.  Snow  plows 
were  utterly  impotent  to  clear  the  tracks.  They  might  remove  the 
hills  of  snow,  but  the  firm  cake  of  frozen  slush  beneath  was  perfectly 
unyielding.  Pretty  soon  it  began  to  appear  that  other  traffic  had  been 


502 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


paralyzed.  No  milkmen  or  grocers  or  batchers  came  to  the  doors 
with  their  supplies.  In  fact,  people  learned  all  at  once  what  it  meant 
to  supply  a  million  of  sonls  with  the  common  necessaries  of  life, 
what  a  small  matter  could  reduce  a  city  full  to  inconvenience,  and 
even  to  some  decree  of  suffering.  And  it  was  equally  impressive  to 
observe  how  all  modern  appliances  for  locomotion  and  communica- 
tion, which  had  become  men's  boast,  were  momentarily  helpless  be- 
fore a  slightly  peculiar  combination  of  such  common  phenomena  of 
the  weather,  as  rain,  snow,  and  frost,  following  in  quick  succession. 
A  ureal  city  was  taught  in  a  few  hours  its  human  limitations. 

Fatal  results,  not  always  recorded,  followed  the  distressing  con- 


THE  VANDKKHILT  KKSIDKXCKS. 


dit  ions  under  w  hich  the  city  found  itself.  The  blizzard,  among  its  list 
of  victims,  claimed  one  mark  especially  shining.  Roscoe  Conkling, 
once  Senator  from  New  York,  the  able  lawyer,  domineering  politi- 
cian, and  brilliant  orator,  had  made  New  York  City  his  home,  after 
his  unhappy  controversy  with  President  Garfield  had  consigned  him 
to  private  life,  attended  thither  by  his  satellite,  who  was  then  wont  to 
be  irreverently  referred  to  as  4<  Me  too  "  Piatt.  Previously  Conkling's 
home  had  been  in  Rochester,  but  he  obeyed  the  impulse  of  so  many 
men  after  they  have  once  moved  in  a  large  sphere  in  this  country. 
As  (Irani  and  Sherman  came  to  live  in  New  York;  as  Mr.  Cleveland 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


.-,<>:; 


did  in  1889  when  he  retired  from  his  first  term  as  President;  so  Conk- 
ling  exchanged  New  York  for  Rochester  in  1881.  <  >ne  writer  easily  ex- 
plains "  this  well-marked  tendency  of  prominent  men  throughout 
the  country  " — i.e.,  they  select  our  city  because  "  its  life  is  so  intense 
and  so  varied  and  so  full  of  manifold  possibilities,  that  it  has  a  special 
and  peculiar  fascination  for  ambitious  and  high-spirited  men  of  every 
kind."  The  blizzard  cost  Mr.  Gonkling  his  life.  He  struggled  through 
the  drifts  in  the  morning  and  reached  his  office.  He  did  aot  wish  to 
repeat  that  experience  in  the  afternoon,  and  wished  to  engage  a  cab. 
The  driver  charged  him  $50,  which  he  deemed  a  little  too  steep,  and 
therefore  once  more  addressed  himself  to  labors  which  have  made 
arctic  explorations  so  perilous.  The  over-exertion,  made  worse  by  a 
cold  contracted  in  the  head,  proved  too  much  for  the  ex-Senator,  and  a 
few  days  later  he  died.  He  was  overcome  in  Madison  Square,  and  on 
the  spot  a  statue  of  him  has  been  since  erected. 

In  December,  1885,  death  removed  another  prominent  figure 
from  among  New  York  citizens;  the  richest  man  in  the  city,  in 
the  country,  nay,  in  the  world,  William  H.  Vanderbilt.  He  was 
the  oldest  son  of  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  who  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  colossal  fortune.  At  lirst  the  old  Commodore  did  not  put 
much  faith  in  the  abilities  of  his  oldest  son,  and  left  him  to 
struggle  along  the  best  he  could  on  a  farm  on  Staten  Island. 
But  after  a  while  his  sterling  though  not  perhaps  brilliant  quali- 
ties convinced  the  father  of  his  mistake,  and  now  he  gave  him  all  his 
confidence.  The  younger  Vanderbilt  more  than  doubled  the  great  for- 
tune left  him,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  supposed  to  be  worth 
$200,000,000.  His  wealth  was  legitimately  earned  by  railroad  enter- 
prise of  the  safest  and  most  beneficial  kind,  and  in  no  way  by  specula- 
tions which  brought  ruin  upon  others.  The  two  handsome  private 
residences  he  erected  for  himself  and  daughters  on  the  block  from 
Fifty-first  to  Fifty-second  Street  on  Fifth  Avenue,  while  not  so  showy 
as  Stewart's  mansion,  were  at  once  more  elegant  and  more  homelike. 
He  was  a  patron  of  art.  owning  at  least  $1,000,000  worth  of  paintings. 
His  private  benevolences  were  great,  but,  of  course,  unrecorded.  He 
paid  for  the  bringing  of  the  Obelisk  from  Egypt  to  New  York,  as  was 
noted  previously.  His  large  gift  of  half  a  million  to  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  will  not  soon  be  forgotten. 

Churches  were  steadily  going  up  in  the  wake  of  population,  north- 
ward, leaving  the  poorer  districts  rather  bare  of  Protestant  places  of 
worship  at  least,  according  to  the  complaints  of  some:  these  being 
replaced  however  by  numbers  of  Mission  Chapels,  and  benevolent  en- 
terprises of  various  sorts.  The  population  had  passed  the  million 
mark  in  1880,  the  Federal  census  accrediting  us  with  1.206.500.  The 
Board  of  Education  was  hard  put  to  it  to  keep  pace  with  this  rapid 
growth  in  providing  school  houses,  which  had  now  reached  very 
nearly,  or  passed,  the  number  of  a  hundred,  besides  its  two  colleges  for 


50-A 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


young  men  and  young  women.  In  1886  there  was  established  for  the 
benefit  of  children  an  institution  quite  unique  of  its  kind.  This  was  a 
"Children's  Library."  at  436  West  Thirty-fifth  Street.  Here  were 
provided  a  library  and  reading-room,  open  to  children  twelve  years  of 
age  and  under,  admission  to  which  was  secured  by  tickets  from  teach- 
ers or  friends.  It  began  operations  in  January,  and  then  had  300  vol- 
umes, as  well  as  a  store  of  children's  magazines,  games,  etc.  Boys 
were  admitted  on  Tuesday  and  Thursday  afternoons,  and  every  even- 
ing, and  girls  on  afternoons  of  other  days.  During  the  hi  st  year  there 
was  an  average  attendance  of  sixty-four  per  day.  and  at  one  time  there 
were  only  eight  volumes  left  on  the  shelves.  The  cost  of  running  it 
was  only  f  120,  during  that  first  year. 

It  must  not  be  omitted  in  a  record  of  social  life  in  New  York  that 
the  bicycle  in  t  he  "  safety  "  form  made  its  advent  in  1889.  Previously 


BATTERY   PARK,  WASHINGTON   BUILDING,  PRODU<  E  EXCHANGE. 


it  had  been  of  the  high-andlow  wheel  pattern,  sadly  addicted  to 
"  headers."  The  forerunner  of  all  was  a  clumsy  affair  attracting  at- 
tention first  in  1S(»S.  In  the  centennial  year  the  high  wheel  came  to 
the  count  ry ;  but  no  such  conquest  was  made  by  it  as  fell  to  the  lot  of 
the  "  safety  "  that  dawned  upon  the  world  in  L889.  Every  improve- 
ment of  the  original  design  has  but  served  to  make  the  machine  more 
ami  more  popular,  till  to  be  no  "wheelman"  or  "  wheelwoman  " 
is  to  be  quite  behind  the  age.  It  has  revolutionized  habits  of 
life,  and  improved  country  roads  ami  city  streets.  People  had 
forgotten  all  about  the  topography  of  their  own  city  or  land,  by 
reason  of  railroads  and  horse-cars.  Now  they  learned  again 
where   hills  and   dales  and    rivers   and    meadows  and  woodland 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


505 


prevailed  and  what  street  pavements  were  like.  Whatever  thor- 
oughfare is  lacking  in  excellence  in  city  or  country  is  apt  to 
be  heard  from;  and  the  interest  of  towns  and  counties  is  deeply 
involved  in  keeping  things  in  good  trim.  Besides,  a  genera- 
tion is  coming  to  the  fore  with  muscles  braced  and  limbs  well 
rounded  by  exercise;  with  lungs  expanding  under  the  influence  of 
vigorous  draughts  of  good  air;  and  with  habits  of  eating,  sleeping, 
and  drinking,  that  forbid  injurious  excess,  but  yet  demand  a  generous 
supply  of  what  is  wholesome. 

The  history  of  trade  was  signalized  in  New,  York  during  this  period 
by  the  opening  of  the  new  Produce  Exchange,  on  Bowling  Green,  in 
May,  1884:,  lifting  its  campanille  tower  high  above  surrounding  build- 
ings. The  orator  of  the  day  was  Chauncey  M.  Depew.  Just  before  the 
exercises  commenced  whispers  went  about  that  Ferdinand  Ward's 
bank,  with  his  Government-contract  schemes,  had  gone  to  pieces. 
This  involved  General  Grant  in  ruin,  having  been  induced  to  form  a 
sort  of  partnership  with  Ward,  who  wanted  his  name  as  an  article  of 
trade.  The  unscrupulous  financier  was  alone  responsible  for  the  fail- 
ure, and  Grant  himself  personally  untouched  by  any  suspicions  of 
wrong  doing.  He  had  been  induced  by  Ward  to  make  a  loan  to  him  of 
|150,000,  shortly  before  the  crash  in  1884.  It  was  secured  by  a  mort- 
gage, and  the  payment  of  this  sum  robbed  Grant  of  nearly  all  his  sav- 
ings. Mr.  Yanderbilt  at  once  offered  to  cancel  the  mortgage,  but  it 
was  twice  declined  by  the  General.  Mr.  Yanderbilt  then  offered  to 
pay  about  that  sum  for  Grant's  relics  or  souvenirs  secured  during  his 
tour  of  the  world.  This  offer  being  in  a  shape  that  the  General  could 
accept  without  the  loss  of  self-respect,  the  purchase  was  effected,  and 
the  collection  immediately  presented  by  Mr.  Yanderbilt  to  the  Govern- 
ment at  Washington.  This  sad  event  doubtless  hastened  Gen.  Gra  it's 
end.  He  now  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  writing  his  memoirs, 
for  which  a  large  sale  was  assured;  he  labored  at  this  beyond  his 
strength  and  amid  his  great  sufferings,  completing  the  task  a  few 
weeks  before  his  death,  a  year  later.  The  rascally  proceedings  of 
Ward  involved  many  others  in  ruin,  and  caused  a  mild  panic  during 
some  weeks  in  the  late  spring  of  1884. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


R  K.MEM  BERING  THE  DISCOVERY   OF  AMERICA. 


Y  a  judicious  choice  Tanimauy  II all  had  succeeded  in  placing 
I  heir  candidate  iu  the  Mayor's  chair  in  1886.  Jt  was  neces- 
sary to  rally  voters  against  the  platform  of  the  Labor  Party 
under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Henry  George.  The  fifth  plank 
of  their  platform  declared  "  that  the  enormous  value  which  the  pres- 
ence of  one  and  a  half  million  of  people  gives  to  the  land  of  the  city 
belongs  properly  to  the  whole  community."  The  great  capitalists 
and  real-estate  owners  did  not  like  this  doctrine;  neither  did  the  poli- 
ticians who  were  in 
politics  for  busi- 
ness. They  wished 
the  wealth  of  the 
city,  pouring  by 
taxation  into  the 
public  purse,  to  ac- 
crue to  the  benefit 
of  a  very  Limited 
portion  of  the  com- 
m  unit  y  o  n  It  . 
Again  a  n  o  t  h  e  r 
idea  altogether  too 
r a  d  i  c  a  1  was  the 
plank  in  the  Labor 
Party's  platform 
thai  the  city  take 
charge   of  transit 

operations  by  railways,  elevated  or  on  the  surface,  drawn  by 
horses,  cables,  steam,  or  electricity,  because  private  corporations 
provoked  strikes.  But  then  there1  were  other  kinds  of  "strikes" 
which  a  city  government  mighl  organize  against  corporations, 
resulting  in  "boodle"'  for  franchises,  which  the  city  could  not 
well  get  out  of  itself.  Hence.  Mr.  George  must  be  beaten  at  all 
hazards,  even  though  Mr.  Hewitt  had  to  be  asked  to  lead  the 
Tammany  forces  to  victory.  In  spite  of  Mr.  Hewitt's  entire  "aloof- 
ness" from  the  power  that  had  carried  him  into  the  chair,  that 
same  victory  had  intrenched  Tammany  to  a  sufficient  degree  to  en- 
able them  to  cast  loose  the  uncongenial  lender  forced  upon  them  by 
circumstances  in  1886,  and  an  out-and-out  man  of  their  own  obtained 


l'OSTOFFICE  AND  PARK. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


507 


the  Mayoralty  prize  in  1888.  Two  years  later  (in  1.81)0)  a  desperate 
effort  was  made  to  get  rid  of  the  Tammany  power  in  municipal  poli- 
tics. The  independent  Democrats,  nominated  Mr.  Francis  M.  Scott, 
a  Democrat,  and  the  Republicans  were  wise  enough  to  forego  the  mis- 
take of  former  years.  They  cast  party  considerations  to  the  winds, 
and  indorsed  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Scott.  The  People's  Municipal 
League,  organized  in  the  interest  of  purity  in  city  politics.  also  gave 
their  adherence  to  Scott.  Against  this  one  candidate  of  the  bet  ter  ele- 
ment of  citizens  Tammany  did  not  hesitate  to  pit  their  former  stand- 
ard bearer,  Grant.  A  noble  tight  was  made.by  Mi*.  Scott,  spending 
evening  after  evening  making  speeches  in  every  part  of  the  city,  lie 
was  a  lawyer  of  hue  abilities  and  eloquent  address,  and  in  t  his  respect 
alone  far  superior  to  his  opponent,  who  was  a  man  of  little  education. 
There  were  idle  rumors  that  he  could  not  even  write  his  name,  or 
compose  a  letter;  and  some  of  the  newspapers  were  impudent  enough 
to  offer  to  give  $500  for  charity,  if  the  Mayor  would  write  an  auto- 
graph letter  in  order  to  prove  his  ability  to  do  so.  At  last  came  elec- 
tion day,  November  1.  181)0.  It  was  a  good  "  Republican  "  day,  cloudy 
or  hazy  in  the  morning  but  without  rain,  and  clearing  in  the  after- 
noon to  fine  weather.  Thus  there  was  no  hindrance  to  the  bringing 
out  Of  the  biggest  vote  of  the  better  element.  On  this  day, too, the  Aus- 
tralian ballot  first  went  into  effect,  promising  to  secure  the  utmost 
possible  purity  of  the  ballot,  by  preventing  or  neutralizing  the  pur- 
chasing of  votes,  since  by  its  provisions  there  could  be  no  certainty 
that  what  was  bought  would  be  delivered.  Nevertheless  Mr.  Scott 
was  hopelessly  beaten,  and  Hugh  J.  Grant  carried  the  day  by  a  major- 
ity of  twenty  thousand.  A  study  of  the  figures  later  developed  the 
secret  of  the  Tammany  victory.  It  was  estimated  that  there  were  at 
least  forty  thousand  citizens  who  had  neglected  to  vote,  either  fr  m 
indifference  to  their  duty  and  privilege  as  citizens,  or  because  as  Re- 
publicans they  would  not  vote  for  even  so  respectable  and  high-toned 
a  gentleman  as  Mr.  Scott,  because  he  was  a  Democrat.  The  stay-at- 
homes  were  not  residents  of  the  districts  which  gave  Grant  their  suf- 
frages. It  is  more  than  likely  that  a  little  more  patriotism  would 
have  turned  the  scale  against  him.  The  people  needed,  it  seems, 
rousing  up,  before  they  could  be  marshaled  in  solid  phalanx  against 
the  power  of  Tammany.  That  rousing  came  in  due  course  of  time. 
Thomas  F.  Gilroy  was  put  up  as  Mayor  in  1892,  and  continued 
the  ascendency  of  the  forces  that  had  again  obtained  a  hold 
upon  the  public  offices,  after  the  long  interval  of  a  score  of 
years  since  the  downfall  of  Tweed.  Continuance  of  power  made 
the  politicians  of  this  stripe  heedless  of  results,  and  abuses  began 
again  to  creep  into  the  administration  of  municipal  affairs.  The  So- 
ciety for  the  Prevention  of  Crime  was  now  under  the  Presidency  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst,  the  successor  of  Dr.  Howard  Crosby. 
It  was  suspected  by  the  society  that  the  police  were  in  collusion  with 


,-)08 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


houses  of  ill-fame,  and  in  general  derived  a  revenue  from  various 
forms  of  law-breaking  by  a  system  of  bribes  where  offered,  or  the  levy- 
ing of  deliberate  blackmail  from  those  reluctant  to  pay.  Accusations 
to  that  effect  were  freely  made.  Places  where  debauchery  and  licen- 
tiousness were  boldly  carried  on  were  pointed  out  to  the  police,  but 
the  cry  was.  no  arrests  without  positive  proof.  By  a  bold  stroke,  de- 
manded by  the  necessity  of  the  case,  yet.  which  must  have  been  dis- 
gustingly repugnant  to  his  feelings,  and  for  which  unthinking  men 
roundly  condemned  him, — Dr.  Parkhursl  secured  the  proof  positive 
thus  blandly  required,  so  that  he  could  himself  go  upon  the  witness 
stand  and  swear  to  his  charges  against  the  Police  Department.  Pub- 
lic sentiment  was  roused  bv  the  revelations  made,  and  the  Legisla- 
lure  was  induced  to  order  an  investigation  of  the  Department,  at  the 
instance  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce.  Thus  came  into  being  the 
now  famous  Lexow  Investigation  Committee,  appointed  in  January. 
L894.  They  began  their  sessions  in  February,  continuing  them  with 
intervals  until  December,  and  engaged  as  counsel  Mr.  John  W.  Groff, 
a  gentleman  of  Irish  birth  and  of  the  Catholic  faith,  a  lawyer  of  re- 
markable ability,  who  as  Assistant  District-Attorney  had  had  con- 
siderable experience  in  dealing  with  the  criminal  classes.  As  the  pro- 
ceedings went  on  facts  of  the  most  disgraceful  and  sensational  nature 
were  constantly  brought  to  light.  Some  six.  hundred  policy-shops, 
the  lowest  kind  of  gambling  hells,  were  actually  running  under  police 
protection.  A  keeper  of  a  house  of  ill-fame  had  found  it  worth  while 
in  pay  the  exorbitant  sums  asked  for  in  order  to  be  left  undisturbed, 
till  the  aggregate  of  $25,000  was  reached.  People  doing  honest  busi- 
ness were  mulcted  on  some  pretext  or  other,  to  save  themselves  fiom 
annoyance,  or  to  get  the  protection  they  were  emit  led  to.  Pushcart 
venders  upon  the  street  were  not  considered  victims  too  petty  to  be 
fleeced.  Ignorant  foreign  shop-keepers  were  robbed  of  nearly  all  their 
income,  on  some  trumped-up  threat  of  exposure  of  wrongdoing.  The 
indignation  and  disgust  of  the  public  of  New  York  exceeded  all 
bounds.  The  wings  of  Tammany  seemed  to  have  brooded  as  much  cor- 
ruption, although  in  a  new  and  more  contemptible  shape,  as  in  the 
heyday  of  the  Tweed  Ring.  The  Lexow  Committee's  work,  besides 
this  effect  upon  public  opinion,  resulted  in  establishing  the  compli- 
city with  these  abuses  of  two  Police  Commissioners,  two  ex-Conuuis- 
sioners.  three  Inspectors,  one  ox-inspector  (who  managed  to  sport  a 
private  steam-yacht),  twenty  Captains,  two  ex-Captains,  seven  Ser- 
geants, and  six  Detective  Sergeants.  But.  nothing  so  sadly  illustrates 
the  devious  course  of  the  law  as  the  fact  that,  when  indictments  were 
brought  against  these  offenders,  the  trials  actually  conducted  resulted 
as  follows:  one  conviction,  which  was  reversed;  one  conviction  after 
two  trials,  an  appeal  pending  subsequently;  two  disagreements  of 
juries.  Forty  indictments  were  dismissed,  and  thirty-live  not  even 
brought  to  trial.   The  cost  came  to  $76,534. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


509 


But  one  effect  could  not  be  averted.  The  anger  and  disgust  of  the 
citizens  aroused  them  thoroughly  to  the  necessity  of  ridding  them- 
selves of  Tammany,  and  at  the  next  municipal  election,  which  fortu- 
nately fell  in  this  very  year  w  hile  the  people  were  still  hot  for  reform, 
—there  was  a  thorough  and  extensive  municipal  house-cleaning.  As 
in  the  days  of  Tweed,  a  Committee  of  Seventy  was  organized,  who 
nominated  a  ticket  regardless  of  party.  Their  nominee  for  Mayor 
was  Mr.  William  L.  Strong,  indorsed  by  the  Republicans,  the  State 
Democracy,  the  Independent  County  Democrats,  the  Anti-Tammany 
Democrats,  and  the  German- American  Reform  Union.  A  feature  of 
the  campaign,  occasioned  by  the  revelations  of  municipal  corruption, 


INTERIOR  VIEW  OF    TRINITY  CHURCH. 


was  the  establishment  of  the  Good  Government  Clubs,  whose 
branches  in  various  parts  of  the  city  were  designated  by  letters  of  the 
alphabet.  These  confederated  clubs  also  indorsed  Mr.  Strong's  nomi- 
nation. Tammany  imagined  that  luck  might  turn  their  way  again  if 
they  put  in  nomination  the  one  who  had  led  them  twice  to  victory, 
and  who  had  once  before  foiled  the  clamors  of  reformers.  But  Hugh 
J.  Grant  could  not  prevail  this  time.  Mr.  Strong  was  elected  Mayor 
by  a  majority  of  45,187,  and  Tammany  power  for  the  time  being  was 
swept  out  of  existence.  John  YV.  Goff  was  elected  Recorder  by  a  still 
larger  majority.    At  the  election  of  1894,  the  people  also  voted  for 


510 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Bapid  Transit  on  a  larger  scale,  and  on  the  question  of  the  Greater 
New  York. 

In  July,  1890,  the  New  Aqueduct,  conveying  an  increased  quantity 
of  water  from  the  Croton  Riverto  New  York  City,  was  tirst  ased.  The 
old  system  was  becoming  painfully  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the  city, 
so  immensely  augmented  in  population  since  1842.  Finally  in  1883 
the  Legislature  authorized  the  construction  of  a  new  conduit  issuing 
350  feet  above  the  Croton  Dam,  and  running  directly  to  the  large,  cir- 
cular reservoir  in  Central  Park,  passing  under  the  Harlem  River.  It 
is  in  the  form  of  a  horseshoe  15  feet  high  and  23  feet  wide,  being  capa- 
ble of  discharging  318  millions  of  gallons  every  t  wenty-four  hours. 
In  June,  1891,  when  it  was  completed,  its  cost  was  estimated  at  over 
twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.   A  little  over  a  year  later,  in  August, 

1892,  another  dam  on  the  Croton  was  contracted  for,  to  add  21  square 
miles  to  the  drainage  area,  and  to  afford  storage  for  thirty  thousand 
millions  of  gallons.    It  is  expected  to  be  finished  in  1898.    In  June, 

1893,  preparations  were  made  for  constructing  a  new  storage  reser- 
voir for  the  use  of  the  city  above  the  Harlem  River,  with  a  capacity 
of  fifteen  hundred  millions  of  gallons,  much  larger  therefore  than  the 
circular  reservoir  in  Central  Park.  When  it  is  considered  what  multi- 
tudes of  souls  now  needed  to  be  abundantly  supplied  with  water, 
these  provisions  would  appear  none  too  ample.  In  1S!)0  the  Federal 
Census  made  the  population  of  New  York  1.513.501.  It  was  claimed 
by  t  he  I  >emocratic  politicians  who  then  ruled  the  city  that  the  Repub- 
lican administration  had  tampered  with  the  figures,  and  the  police  of 
the  city  were  directed  to  take  another  census:  they  made  the  figure 
1.710,715.  In  1892  the  State  Census  occurred  and  put  the  city  down 
for  1,800,891.  In  18G0  the  population  was  about  814,000:  thus  in 
thirty-two  years  it  had  increased  one  million.  In  1880  Chicago  had. 
by  a  series  of  annexations  of  contiguous  villages  miles  apart,  become 
possessed  of  a  population  of  1,099,850.  This  made  it  the  second  city 
of  the  land,  which  put  Philadelphia  in  the  third  place,  while  Brooklyn 
became  number  four. 

This  period  saw  the  beginning  of  the  gaunl  and  dizzy  "sky- 
scrapers." It  is  an  obvious  fact  that  in  a  city  like  New  York  ground  is 
very  dear,  increasingly  so  as  business  and  population  increase.  But 
there  can  be  no  embargo  of  cost  laid  on  the  air.  and  above  the  100  x 
100  feet  of  some  invaluable  city  lot.  story  after  story  might  be  added 
with  only  the  cost  of  building,  until  the  tower  of  Babel  were  eclipsed 
in  altitude.  Two  circumstances  combined  to  make1  such  sky-scraping 
feasible.  First  there  were  the  improvements  in  manufacturing  steel, 
rendering  that  product  much  cheaper;  and  now  it  became  the  practice 
to  construe!  buildings  of  steel  and  stone  together,  a  framework  of 
steel  inside  being  supplemented  exteriorly  by  walls  of  stone  or  bride. 
There  was  practically  no  limit  to  the  strength  of  a  building  thus  put 
together,  and  ii  could  be  carried  to  any  elevation.    Bid  this  would 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


511 


TRINITY  CHURCH. 


512 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


have  been  no  advantage  without  the  elevator,  which  was  simultane- 
ously developed  in  the  directions  of  swiftness  and  safety,  and  was 
gradually  perfected  so  as  to  be  able  to  run  continuously  to  any 
height.  Hence  we  find  upon  the  streets  of  New  York  those  enormous 
and  ungainly  office  buildings,  one  seeking  to  outrival  the  other  in  the 
number  of  stories.  One  of  ten  is  now  a  very  low  affair;  tifteen.  twenty, 
even  twenty-five  stories  are  not  uncommon  on  Broadway  and  in  con- 
tiguous downtown  streets.  They  hopelessly  bury  the  city's  steeples. 
In  earlier  days  one  climbed  to  Trinity's  utmost  stretch  of  stairs  to  see 
the  surrounding  city.  Now  a  person  standing  on  its  very  cross  would 
stare  point  blank  into  the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  story  of  some  near 
neighbor;  having  very  likely  a  story  or  two  to  spare  besides.  And 
Trinity's  fate  is  shared  by  a  good  many  churches  even  further  up- 
town, some  of  which  have  hotels  or  business  buildings  by  their  side 
whose  roofs,  with  a  surface  of  thousands  of  square  feet,  are  quite  as 
high  or  even  higher  than  the  tapering  points  of  their  steeples. 

Churches  were  now  rapidly  going  up  on  both  sides  of  Central  Park, 
particularly  the  west  side,  and  in  Harlem.  At  One  Hundred  and 
Tenth  Street  between  Columbus  (Ninth)  and  Amsterdam  (Tenth)  ave- 
nues, on  the  site  of  the  former  Leake  and  Watts'  Orphan  Asylum,  it 
is  proposed  to  build  a  magnificent  Protestant  Cathedral.  The  concep- 
tion is  Bishop  Potter's,  whose  wish  is  to  make  it  not  merely  an  Epis- 
copal Church,  but  the  expression,  in  a  form  worthy  of  a  great  and 
wealthy  city,  of  the  general  religious  sentiment.  Two  towers  are  to 
hank  the  front  and  a  massive  dome  and  steeple  to  rise  from  the  inter- 
section of  nave  and  transepts.  On  December  27.  1892,  the  corner- 
stone of  this  unique  edifice  Avas  laid  with  impressive  ceremony,  at 
which  it  does  not  appear  that  representatives  of  the  other  denomina- 
tions called  upon  to  interest  themselves  in  its  erection  were  given  any 
active  part.  The  name  of  the  church  is  to  be  St.  John  the  Divine.  In 
1894  a  magnificent  present  was  given  to  Trinity  Church,  as  a  memorial 
ill'  John  Jacob  Astor  by  William  Waldorf  Astor,  In  the  form  of  three 
bronze  doors  with  two  leaves  each,  and  six  panels  representing  in  re- 
lief various  biblical  and  historical  scenes.  The  cost  was  8100. 000. 
The  main  or  east  door,  fronting  Wall  Street,  is  designed  by  the  sculp- 
tor Carl  Bitter,  the  scriptural  scenes  bearing  on  the  general  theme: 
"  ThoU  didst  open  the  Kingdom  to  all  the  believers."  The  north  door 
is  from  the  hands  of  the  sculptor  -J.  Massey  Rhind.  the  six  scenes  il- 
lustrating the  leading  thought:  "  I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep."  the  de- 
liverance, refuge,  rescue,  help,  that  as  such  the  Saviour  affords  to 
men.  The  south  door  is  by  Charles  Henry  Xiehans,  and  represents 
six  scenes  in  the  history  of  Trinity  Parish  :  1 .  The  consecration  of  the 
present  building  on  May  21,  1840;  2.  Washington  entering  St.  Paul's 
Chapel  after  the  Inauguration.  April  :?0.  17S9;  Henry  Hudson  on 
board  the  Halfmoon,  off  Manhattan  Island.  September  11,  1009;  4. 
Dedication  of  the  Astor  Keredos,  June  29,  1S77:  5.  Consecration  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


r,i:: 


four  Bishops  at  St.  Paul's,  on  October  31,  1832;  and  6.  Dr.  Barclay 
preaching  to  Indians  in  the  year  1738. 

The  Salvation  Army  movement,  winch  \v;ts  begun  by  the  Bev.  Will- 
iam Booth,  an  English  Methodist  preacher,  in  1861,  found  its  way  to 
Philadelphia  in  1S79,  but  its  headquarters  were  soon  removed  to  New 
York,  and  are  now  to  be  found  on  Fourteenth  Street  near  Six1  li  Ave- 
nue.   It  was  seen  that  (he  American  metropolis  furnished  as  many 


C ATI  1 1-  DUAL   OF   ST.   .IOUN   THE  DIVINK. 


cases  for  the  peculiar  operations  of  the  Army  as  the  worst  purlieus  of 
London.  Ballington  Booth,  one  of  General  Booth's  sons,  was  sent 
over  to  take  command  of  the  American  contingent,  and  with  his  wife, 
became  exceedingly  popular.  They  adapted  themselves  to  the  pecu- 
liar necessities  of  their  new  situation,  and  cordially  accepted  the 
modifications  which  the  work  as  developed  in  this  country  seemed  to 
suggest.  Mrs.  Booth  especially  won  hosts  of  friends,  and  succeeded 
in  commending  her  cause  in  the  parlors  of  some  of  the  most  cultured 
and  affluent  homes  of  the  city.    Indeed,  daughters  of  men  prominent 


514 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in  highest  financial  and  social  circles  lent  themselves  to  the  work 
among  the  lowly.  This  Americanization  of  the  movement,  attended 
by  some  inevitable  independence  of  spirit  or  ideas,  displeased  the 
General-in-Chief  at  home;  and  in  L896  a  split  occurred  in  the  ranks. 
Ballington  Booth  continuing  his  methods  as  adapted  to  the  American 
environment,  but  organizing  a  new  body  calling  itself  the  "  American 
Volunteers." 

In  1ND2  the  citv's  attention  was  forcibly  called  to  another  religious 
movement,  entirely  indigenous  to  America,  started  in  a  very  humble 
and  unobtrusive  way.  but  now  leaping  into  prominence  before  tin* 
metropolitan  public  and  astonishing  it  and  the  world  by  the  colossal 
proportions  it  had  attained.  This  was  the  Young  People's  Society  of 
(  hi  ist  ian  Endeavor.  The  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark  was  the  founder  of  it, 
starting  a  society  among  the  young  people  of  his  church  in  L881.  On 
July  7.  1892,  the  annual  Convention  gathered  representatives  in  New 
York  from  over  twenty-one  thousand  societies  scattered  all  over  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  No  less  than  thirty  thousand  delegates 
were  in  attendance,  and  the  presence  of  such  an  immense  army  of 
bright  young  people  of  both  sexes  made  a  great  impression  upon  the 
general  public.  The  press  cordially  welcomed  their  advent,  and  vied 
with  each  other  in  giving  full  accounts  of  the  various  meetings.  These 
continued  during  four  days,  from  Thursday.  -Inly  7.  to  Sunday.  July 
10.  and  were  held  in  the  great  auditorium  of  Madison  Square  Garden. 
The  delegations  from  the  various  States  were  assigned  to  different 
hotels,  which  bore  upon  their  fronts  upon  strips  of  canvas  the  names 
of  the  particular  States  whose  young  people  were  entertained  there, 
thus  facilitating  for  each  group  t  he  finding  of  i  heir  quarters  in  a  fcity 
so  extraordinarily  vast  to  many  of  them.  The  gay  and  thoughtless 
metropolis  seemed  converted  into  a  religious  camp,  and  was  forced  in 
spite  of  itself  to  take  notice  of  and  rolled  upon  the  happy  significance 
of  this  phenomenon. 

Madison  Square  Garden  was  opened  just  in  time  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  vast  assemblies  brought  together  at  the  exercises  of  this 
( Jonvention.  It  was  an  ideal  building  for  vast  assemblages.  >"o  ot  her 
city  contains  its  like.  In  every  city  where  the  Christian  Endeavor 
Society  has  since  met.  Cleveland.  "Washington,  and  others,  these 
great  gatherings  had  to  be  held  in  several  tents.  In  1S00  the  space 
formerly  occupied  by  the  depot  of  the  Harlem  and  the  New  Haven 
railroads,  and  later  by  Barnum's  Hippodrome. — a  somewhat  crude 
adaptation  of  the  previous  structures  to  the  uses  of  a  circus,  partly 
covered  by  canvas,  was  inclosed  within  a  vast  building  of  light 
brick,  ornamented  with  white  terra  cotta  trimmings.  The  whole  area 
measures  200  x  425  feet,  consisting  throughout  of  masonry,  iron,  and 
glass.  Seats  rise  in  steep  tiers  on  three  sides,  and  galleries  to  the 
third  or  fourth  story  on  all  of  the  four  sides.  The  center  furnishes  a 
fine  space  for  circus  exhibitions,  or  the  Wild  West  Show,  now  world- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


515 


famous.  The  tan  bark  arena  can  be  flooded  with  water  four  feel  deep 
and  furnish  aquatic  shows.  It  is  utilized  for  the  purpose's  already 
mentioned,  for  political  meetings,  for  poultry,  dairy,  horse  shows;  for 
walking  contests,  and  bicycle  races, —  in  short  an  infinite  variety  of 
such  affairs,  which  require  great  areas,  not  otherwise  so  safely  guard- 
ed against  the  vicissitudes  of  the  weather.  Concerts  by  large  bauds 
are  also  successfully  held  here.  Near  the  southwesi  corner  rises  a 
campanile  tower  300  feet  high,  surmounted  by  the  figure  of  Diana 
twanging  her  bow,  as  a  weathervane.  On  tjie  other  corner  snugh 
stowed  away,  so  as  to  make  no  sensible  diminution  in  the  interior 
space,  is  a  theater.  Complaints  have  recently  come  to  the  e;irs  of  the 
public  that  there  is  no  money  in 
the  enterprise,  and  that  the  Gar- 
den may  be  abolished.  It  would 
be  a  distinct  loss  to  the  city  to 
have  this  occur. 

The  United  States  had  long 
been  a  convenient  dumping- 
ground  for  European  countries  to 
deposit  their  incapables  and  de- 
generates in  mind  or  character. 
In  more  than  one  instance  States 
or  cities  have  actually  paid  the 
passage  of  these  creatures,  iu  or- 
der to  get  rid  of  them,  and  popu- 
late with  them  these  wild  and 
waste  shores,  lint  ;it  hist  the  Re- 
public rose  up  in  wrath  against 
this  abuse  of  her  hospitality.  In 
ISSi'  Congress  passed  an  act  for- 
bidding convicts,  lunatics,  idiots, 
and  paupers  to  enter  the  United 
States.  The  steamship  compa- 
nies conveying  such  were  com- 
pelled to  take  them  back  at  their  own  cost,  thus  compelling 
them  to  aid  in  the  effort  to  weed  out  undesirable  people  from 
the  emigrants  seeking  passage  on  their  ships.  It  can  hardly  be 
believed  that  with  this  provision  perfectly  well  known  in  Europe, 
and  Avith  the  steamship  companies  on  their  guard  for  their 
own  interest,  yet  up  to  1893  no  less  than  eleveu  hundred  people, 
mostly  paupers,  Avere  annually  sent  back.  Within  these  later  years  a 
decided  change  is  apparent  in  the  proportion  in  Avhich  certain  nation- 
alities are  represented  among  the  multitudes  still  flocking  hither- 
ward,  and  arriving  at  the  port  of  New  York.  Up  to  1860  the  Irish 
largely  predominated,  so  that  they  formed  three-fifths  of  the  foreign- 
born  population.    Gradually  the  Germans  forged  to  the  front,  and 


510 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


now  the  people  chiefly  in  evidence  anions  the  new  comers  seem  to  be 
the  Italians.  We  do  not  see  that  in  the  rougher  kinds  of  labor  upon 
the  streets  or  buildings  the  majority  of  the  men  engaged  are  Irish  as 
in  former  days:  snch  work  has  fallen  almost  entirely  to  Italians,  while 
the  Irish  are  now  found  in  a  more  exalted  condition,  having-  risen  to 
the  rank  of  bosses,  commanding  these  gangs  of  Italian  laborers.  A 
greater  variety  of  nations  now  also  send  forth  their  subjects:  Poles, 
Bohemians.  Russian  -Jews.  Hungarians,  have  come  over  in  large  num- 
bers recently.  A  curious  feature  of  life  iu  New  York  City  is  the  tend- 
ency of  these  people  of  various  nationalities  to  colonize  different  dis- 
tricts of  the  city,  especially  those  who  do  not  speak  the  English  lan- 
guage. There  are  blocks  upon  blocks  on  the  east  side  of  the  city,  from 
the  Bowery  to  the  East  River,  where  the  inhabitants  are  all  Germans. 
In  another  portion,  notably  Eirst  Avenue  from  One  Hundred  and 
Seventh  or  One  Hundred  and  Eighth  Street  to  One  Hundred  and 
Tenth  Street,  and  beyond,  stretching  westward  well  toward  Third 
A  venue,  there  are  to  be  seen  only  Italians.  So  there  are  Swedish 
neighborhoods,  or  French,  or  whatever  nation  sends  out  a  sufficient 
number  to  make  such  conditions  possible.  Many  individuals  strictly 
keep  themselves  within  these  bounds;  while  many,  even  if  they  do 
emerge  at  times,  have  so  little  occasion  to  employ  any  but  their  own 
vernacular  that  they  do  not  pretend  even  to  make  an  effort  to  acquire 
the  English.  They  have  newspapers  in  their  own  language,  their  vote 
is  elicited  by  pandering  to  their  national  prejudices,  and  speakers  are 
assigned  during  campaigns  to  address  them  in  their  mother-tongue. 
Thus  they  live  a  life  apart  from  the  American  people,  and  those  who 
by  a  knowledge  of  their  language  have  access  to  some  of  their  inner 
circles  have  learned  with  regret  that  frequently  they  hold  in  bitter 
contempt  the  land  which  gives  them  their  bread,  and  the  English- 
speaking  element,  whose  push  and  enterprise  made  this  country  the 
eldorado  whither  they  were  eager  to  escape  from  oppressive  or  de- 
pressing conditions  in  Europe.  It  is  true  that  this  contempt  is  often 
as  foolishly  and  groundlessly  returned  with  interest  by  Americans; 
but  this  is  never  so  biting  and  ill-natured. 

No  especially  prominent  occurrence  invites  attention,  which  in  any 
way  indicates  noteworthy  advancement  in  the  amusement  or  enter- 
tainment of  New  York  society.  Theaters  kept  on  multiplying,  and 
more  particular  mention  will  be  made  later  of  one  or  two  such 
edifices  as  particularly  illustrating  the  appreciation  of  the  art  to 
which  they  minister.  A  number  of  years  previous  to  the  period 
now  in  hand  a  curious  phenomenon  in  theatrical  life  was  the 
popularity  of  the  comic  opera  of  "  Pinafore,"  whose  bright,  sweet, 
catching  music,  innocent  raillery  and  capital  humor,  held  all  New 
York  captivated,  so  that  for  an  entire  season  it  was  played 
simultaneously  in  a  score  of  theaters.  For  three  successive  sea- 
sons, also,  up  to  1S94,  the  beautiful  and  pathetic  play  of  "The 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


:»17 


Old  Homestead,"  presenting  incidents  of  homely,  everyday,  mod- 
ern life,  drew  crowded  bouses  night  after  night;  a  record  closely 
followed  by  another  drama  of  contemporary  American  life  en- 
titled the  "  County  Fair."  It  would  seem  as  if  managers  might 
draw  the  lesson  from  these  facts,  that  it  is  quite  as  profitable  to  place 
upon  their  boards  plays  pure  in  sentiment  and  elevating  in  moral  ef- 
fect, as  those  that  pander  to  degrading  passions  and  depraved  tastes, 
and  whereby  they  draw  down  upon  themselves  the  ill-will  and  antag- 
onism of  good  people.  In  this  connection  it  is  also  to  be  observed  that 
New  York  had  grown  to  be  a  most  attractive'  summer  resort.  In  the 
sixties  and  early  seventies,  the  ocean  was  as  near  as  now,  and  cheap 
excursion  boats  conveyed  people  to  Coney  Island  to  breathe  the  salu- 
brious air.  But  Coney  Island  was  a  sandy  waste.  Here  and  there 
stood  rows  of  rude  bathing  houses,  with  an  occasional  shaded  plat- 
form where  people  could  eat  the  lunches  they  brought  with  them,  and 
perhaps  purchase  drinks  more  or  less  soft,  as  well  as  the  harder  kind. 
It  was  not  till  after  the  centennial  year  (1876)  that  capital  turned  its 
attention  to  this  vicinity  and  began  to  create  attractions  here  for  the 
New  York  public,  at  the  same  time  bringing  it  within  easy  access  to 
the  city.  A  hotel  6G0  feet  long  and  four  stories  high  was  erected:  the 
beach  in  front  was  converted  into  a  garden,  a  music  pavilion  was 
built,  and  the  finest  musicians  in  the  United  States,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  P.  S.  Gilmore,  engaged  to  discourse  the  best  of  music  there 
afternoons  and  evenings.  A  railroad  was  constructed,  the  rails  and 
rolling  stock  of  the  railway  (narrow  gauge)  that  ran  in  the  grounds  of 
the  Exposition  at  Philadelphia  being  utilized.  The  spot  thus  wonder- 
fully improved  was  called  Manhattan  Beach.  Another  more  exclu- 
sive hotel — the  Oriental,  has  been  built  further  east  along  the  sho -e. 
The  music  pavilion  has  developed  into  a  seaside  theater  or  concert 
hall.  The  original  railroad  was  abandoned  and  the  tracks  merged 
with  those  of  the  Long  Island  Railroad.  Soon  after  Manhattan 
Beach,  Brighton  Beach  was  created,  also  with  an  immense  hotel. 
Then  West  Brighton  arose,  developing  into  a  fair — a  perpetual  and 
characteristic  Vanity  Fair,  the  continual  dread  and  horror  of  moral- 
ists, needing  great  watching,  yet  affording  a  play-ground  for  persons 
of  the  serving  classes  with  tastes  not  all  too  elevated.  The  original 
Coney  Island  still  has  some  of  its  old  primitive  features,  wes1  ward  of 
all  these  later  attractions.  In  a  brief  hour  the  population  of  yew- 
York,  according  to  the  degree  of  its  culture,  may  find  itself  trans- 
ported to  this  seaside  resort  of  fourfold  character.  Here  may  be  en- 
joyed the  most  rollicking  and  roystering  kind  of  cheer.  Here  may  be 
heard  the  most  classic  music  that  the  great  masters  ever  produced, 
discoursed  by  orchestras  conducted  by  an  Anton  Seidl,  or  other 
kings  of  the  baton.  Here  again  may  be  heard  the  finest  band-music, 
popular  as  well  as  classic.  Here  pyrotechnics  unsurpassed  combine 
with  scenic  effects  to  please  and  instruct  the  mind,  or  comic  opera  by 


518 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  best  artists  pleases  and  rests  the  mind  bent  on  a  summer  vacation. 
Tims  the  dweller  in  New  York  has  the  advantages  of  a  seaside  resort 
at  his  very  doors.  After  business  hoars  a  quick  run  to  the  seashore 
gives  him  a  chance  for  a  dip  in  the  ocean,  and  offers  him  entertain- 
ment of  the  highest  excellence  (if  he  seeks  this)  to  wipe  the  cobwebs 
out  of  his  brain.  Surely  life  in  the  city  can  not  be  deemed  quite  unen- 
durable under  such  circumstances. 

From  the  piazza  of  one  of  these  hotels  might  have  been  seen  in 


APARTMENT   BOUSES  0PP08ITE  CENTRAL  PARK. 


October,  L893,  the  finish  of  an  exciting  race,  engaging  the  enthusias- 
tic attention  of  two  great  maritime  nations.  In  ;i  previous  chapter 
has  been  told  the  story  of  the  winning  of  the  Queen's  Cup  by  the 
American  schooner  yachl  America,  in  1 851 .  sailing  against  t he  entire 
British  Squadron.  It  was  not  till  L870  that  the  English  yachtsmen 
sent  over  a  yacht  for  the  purpose  of  winning  back  the  trophy,  called 
now  the  America's  Cup.  This  was  the  schooner  Cambria.  Sailing 
against  t  he  American  Squadron,  one  of  its  yachts,  the  Magic,  won  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


519 


day  again  for  Americ  a.  The  third  race  was  tried  in  1871 .  in  which  the 
British  schooner  Livonia  sailed  against  a  single  American  champion, 
the  Columbia,  fortune  again  favoring  the  American  yacht.  The 
fourth  race  was  not  sailed  till  1876,  the  Countess  of  Dufferin  vainly 
seeking  to  wrest  the  Cup  from  its  defender,  Madeline.  In  1881  there 
was  a  change  in  the  character  of  the  racer,  thus  beginning  the  era  of 
the  "  single-stickers,"  or  sloops  with  one  mast.  This  fifth  race,  be- 
tween the  Atalanta,  for  England,  and  the  Mischief,  for  America,  re- 
sulted in  the  same  way.  Four  years  intervened  before  Great  Britain 
was  disposed  to  try  again,  when,  in  1885,  and  In  two  immediately  suc- 
cessive years,  1886  and  1887,  the  Genesta,  the  Galatea,  and  the  This- 
tle vainly  contended  with  the  Puritan,  the  Mayflower,  and  the  Volun- 
teer. Evidently  discouraged  by  these  failures,  six  years  elapsed  be- 
fore another  champion  offered  to  bring  back  the  America's  Cup  to 
England.  In  September  and  October,  1893,  these  races  occurred,  the 
British  boat  being  the  Valkyrie,  and  the  American  the  Vigilant.  In 
the  first  day's  race  the  Vigilant  won;  the  second  race  went  to  the  Val- 
kyrie; so  that  everything  depended  upon  the  third  day,  October  7. 
The  finish  could  be  distinctly  seen  from  the  beaches  along  the  south 
shore  of  Long  Island,  on  Coney  Island  and  at  liockaway.  On  came  the 
two  sw  ift  racers,  now  one  seeming  ahead,  now  another,  distancing  all 
other  craft  and  approaching  the  goal  alone  and  undisturbed.  Two 
clouds  of  canvas,  without  visible  hull  or  mast,  seemed  to  be  floating 
along  the  surface  of  the  water.  Suddenly  one  of  these  clouds  ap- 
peared to  burst,  and  to  be  reduced  to  half  its  size,  whereupon  the 
other  cloud  forged  ahead  and  passed  the  line  a  couple  of  minutes  be- 
fore the  collapsed  one.  It  proved  that  the  silken  spinnaker  sail  of  the 
Valkyrie  yielded  to  the  excessive  strain  at  the  last  moment  and  split 
from  top  to  bottom.   Thus  again  was  the  Cup  safe  for  America. 

This  was  also  the  period  when  the  newspapers  began  habitually  to 
furnish  information  for  the  eye  as  well  as  for  the  mind,  by  liberal  il- 
lustrations in  rude  outlines  of  the  events  described  in  their  columns. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  great  increase  in  the  number  of  illus- 
trated monthly  magazines,  some  of  them  even  becoming  as  frequent 
as  weekly  in  their  issue.  The  pictures  were  all  most  attractive,  while 
the  price  went  steadily  down.  The  monumental  monthlies,  the  Har- 
per's, the  Century,  the  Scribner's  (revived  in  1883),  with  their  highly 
artistic  wood-engravings,  were  sold  for  twenty-five  cents  or  thirty 
cents.  These  later  additions  to  the  list  of  illustrated  periodicals, 
although  apparently  as  beautiful  and  costly  in  their  make-up,  were 
placed  on  the  market  at  twelve  cents,  ten  cents,  and  even  at  five 
cents.  This  sudden  facility  for  presenting  cuts  in  newspapers, 
and  illustrating  magazines  at  low  cost,  was  due  to  advances  in 
the  photographic  art.  It  had  been  made  possible  to  photograph 
directly  upon  zinc  or  copper  plates,  prepared  chemically  so  that 
the  photograph  was  etched  or  engraved    at  once  upon  their  sur- 


520 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


face  whence  the  impression  could  be  transferred  to  paper.  There 
were  two  kinds  of  this  photo-etching:  For  the  rough  cuts  upon 
the  common  paper  of  the  daily  journals  a  pen  picture  had  to 
be  made,  which  w.as  easily  effected  by  drawing  lines  over  part  of  a 
negative  and  allowing  the  rest  to  bleach  away.  From  this  line-picture 
the  line-etching  was  secured  upon  the  plate.  The  half-tone  picture 
was  produced  upon  the  finest-sized  paper,  after  being  etched  upon  the 
plate  directly  from  nature.  When  these  processes  were  once  perfected 
printing  and  photographing  could  go  hand  in  hand,  the  one  noi  much 
more  costly  than  the  other,  and  each  capable  of  multiplying  copies 
for  the  public  ad  infinitum. 

The  colonizing  of  uat  tonalities  is  matched  in  New  York  City  by  that 
of  various  kinds  of  business  or  industries.  In  certain  streets  or  sec- 
tions we  look  only  for  certain  kinds  of  goods.  Maiden  Lane  and  John 
Street  have  their  jewelry  stores,  their  goldsmiths*  and  silversmiths' 
wares.  Along  the  blocks  west  of  Broadway  to  West  Broadway,  and 
from  Worth  to  Canal,  we  look  for  drygoods  houses.  Wholesale  gro- 
cery dealers  affect  West  Broadway. and  Hudson  Street  from  Chambers 
to  Franklin  Street.  Dealers  in  fruit,  produce,  vegetables,  cluster  near 
Washington  Market  along  Washington  and  Greenwich  Streets.  The 
leather  district  announces  itself  to  sight  and  smell  as  we  traverse  the 
Swamp,  dank  and  low,  skirting  the  huge  stone  approach  of  the  East 
River  Bridge,  and  descending  the  hill  from  Printing  IJouse  Square 
and  Park  Row.  Wholesale  drug  houses  are  strong  along  William 
Street.  Even  the  publishing  houses  seem  to  feel  the  need  of  each 
other's  company.  The  Harpers  (  ling  to  their  old  quarters.  But  the 
Appletons,  after  migrating  from  lower  Broadway  to  Bond  Street,  and 
the  Scribners,  after  trying  two  stores  on  Broadway  below  and  oppo- 
site Astor  Place,  joined  their  brethren  of  the  craft  who  had  been  set- 
tling along  Twenty-third  Street,  and  on  Fifth  Avenue  below  that 
street.  So  one  might  go  through  the  city  and  locate  the  larger  con- 
cerns quite  successfully  in  special  districts.  An  observation-trip 
along  Broadway  from  Chambers  Street  to  Fourteenth  Street  would 
revea]  and  her  peculiarity  in  the  business  world  of  New  York.  From 
a  reading  of  the  signs  of  the  shops,  great  or  small,  and  presenting  a 
great  variety  of  art  ides,  mostly  in  the  way  of  (dot  hing  and  furnishing 
goods,  one  could  easily  be  induced  to  imagine  himself  passing  through 
a  street  in  Berlin  or  Hamburg.  There  is  scarcely  an  American  name 
to  be  seen,  while  the  preponderance  of  German  names  is  overwhelm- 
ing; perhaps  here  and  there  a  French  one.  and  also  a  few  Jananese 
a  ml  ( Jhinese  occur. 

In  1S!K>  there  was  due  a  periodical  panic,  to  keep  up  with  those  of 
L873  and  L884.  And  sure  enough  it  came.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been 
due  to  the  suspension  of  the  free  coinage  of  silver  by  the  Government 
of  British  India.  There  was  a  distressful  time,  especially  in  indus- 
trial stocks,  in  the  New  York  markets.    Partisans  attributed  the  bad 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


times  to  the  resumption  of  the  Presidency  by  Mr.  Cleveland.  There 
was  ;i  financial  panic,  at  any  rate, whatever  produced  it,  "  in  some  re- 
spects 1  he  must  distressing  on  record,"  says  a  recent  historian.  Mines 
were  closed,  factories  ceased  work  or  were  reduced  to  half  time, 
banks  suspended  or  failed,  and  trade  was  paralyzed.  But  on  the 
other  hand  this  same  year  witnessed  an  event  calculated  to  put  hope 
once  more  into  the  hearts  of  those  who  had  watched  with  wistful  eyes 
the  departure  of  the  carrying  trade  from  our  ships,  and  the  inordinate 
multiplication  of  passenger  and  freight  steamships,  lining  with  their 
docks  the  .Manhattan  and  Jersey  shores  of  the  North  River  and  flying 
only  tlags  of  powers  transatlantic.  By  a  special  act  of  Congress 
two  foreign-built  steamships  of  the  Inman  line,  the  City  of  New  York 
a  ml  the  ( !ity  of  Paris,  were  admitted  to  American  regisl  ry  and  allowed 
to  fly  the  United  States  flag.  This  company  had  gradually  passed 
into  the  possession  of  American  capital,  and  finally,  in  1S86.  an  appeal 
was  made  to  Congress  that  the  two  steamers  then  building  might  be 
registered  as  American  ships.  Not  until  May,  lSirj.  however,  did  the 
bill  authorizing  this  become  law;  as  there  was  nothing  partisan  about 
the  measure  it  met  with  no  opposition  whatever.  The  conditions 
were  that  the  vessels  admitted  must  attain  a  speed  of  twenty  knots 
an  hour,  and  t  hat  over  90  per  cent,  of  the  ownership  must  be  in  Ameri- 
can hands.  The  ships  were  not  designated  more  particularly,  but  the 
requirements  could  apply  only  to  these  two  at  that  time.  The  date 
selected  for  the  transfer  of  the  tlags  was  Washington's  birthday.  L893. 
The  City  of  New  York,  now  to  be  known  as  simply  New  York,  was 
anchored  off  the  Battery,  and  near  her  lay  one  of  the  United  States 
cruisers,  the  Chicago,  in  holiday  trim,  ready  to  blaze  away  salutes. 
The  Presideni  had  been  invited  to  perform  the  ceremony  of  raising  the 
flag,  and  he  had  cordially  assented  to  grace  the  important  event  with 
his  personal  presence  and  active  participation.  In  response  to  Mr. 
Bourke  Cochran,  the  originator  of  the  bill  and  the  orator  of  the  day. 
as  he  was  about  to  raise  the  Hag.  Mr.  Harrison  made  a  short  address 
in  which  lie  said  that  he  was  proud  to  further  the  hopes  of  the  Nation 
suggested  by  the  occasion,  and  he  made  bold  to  date  from  the  event 
of  the  day  the  restoration  to  our  merchant  marine  of  "  the  work  of 
carrying  our  share  of  the  world's  commerce  upon  the  sea."  Better 
than  this,  there  followed  soon  the  two  sister  ships  St.  Paul  and  St. 
Louis,  not  built  in  England,  but  upon  the  Cramps'  yards  at  Philadel- 
phia, whence  so  many  fast  cruisers  had  proceeded.  The  building  of 
Hie  new  navy  had  encouraged  the  procuring  of  a  plant  there  which 
enabled  t  liese  shipbuilders  to  compete  wit  h  those  on  the  Clyde.  The 
time  of  these  ships  between  Southampton  and  New  York  is  about  six 
days  and  a  few  hours.  The  old  Cunard  line,  however,  has  still  kept 
ahead  of  all  modern  competitors.  Her  two  great  ships,  the  1. mania 
and  Campania,  are  the  largest  and  the  swiftest  steamships  afloat. 
They  register  a  tonnage  of  iL'.ttod.  and  the  indicated  horse-power  is 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


30,000.  In  1894  the  Lucania  made  the  quickest  passage  yet  achieved 
between  Queenstown  and  Sandy  Hook,  in  five  days  and  eight  hours, 
the  Campania  just  previously  accomplishing  the  journey  in  five  days 
and  nine  hours. 

In  spite  of  the  panic  or  the  conditions  that  preinonished  it.  the  citi- 
zens of  New  York  were  not  behind  others  in  duly  celebrating  the  four 
hundreth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus.  As 
the  time  approached  it  was  eminently  proper  that  the  thought  should 
have  occurred  to  mark  that  event  by  an  Industrial  Exhibition,  or  a 
World's  Fair,  such  as  had  expressed  to  the  nations  our  appreciation 
of  the  one  hundred  years  of  independence  in  lX7(i.  And  it  was  also 
natural  that  as  this  idea  took  shape  the  spot  for  the  holding  of  such  a 
fair  should  have  suggested  itself  as  unquestionably  the  metropolis 
of  the  continent  given  to  the  world  by  the  genius  and  perseverance 
of  the  Genoese  discoverer.  In  Europe  such  expositions  are  invariably 
located  in  the  largest  cities  of  the  country  inviting  the  display;  Paris, 
London,  Amsterdam,  Vienna,  have  been  their  scene.  Philadelphia 
was  so  nearly  the  largest  city  that  its  historic  connection  with  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  properly  turned  the  scale  in  her  favor 
in  1870.  But  in  1892  by  every  consideration  of  fitness,  as  well  as  his- 
toric sentiment — New  York  representing  the  acme  of  achievement 
realized  by  that  spirit  of  commercial  enterprise  which  sent  Columbus 
across  the  Atlantic  and  made  his  discovery  so  significant  for  Europe 
— the  Fair  should  have  been  held  there.  Besides,  as  a  mere  matter  of 
convenience.  New  York  was  the  place  for  it.  Vessels  laden  with  the 
precious  products  of  the  old  world  or  the  neAv.  or  bearing  the  ponder- 
ous constructions  that  were  to  exhibit  their  engineering  or  manufac- 
turing skill,  could  be  brought  immediately  to  the  grounds  appoint  d 
for  the  purpose  without  further  transhipping  their  cargoes.  Of  a  sud- 
den, however,  a  cry  arose  from  the  West  that  Chicago  must  be  the 
scene  of  the  Columbian  Fair;  and  pressure  was  at  once  brought  to 
bear  upon  Congress,  and  all  the  arts  of  the  demagogue  and  small 
politicians  applied  to  its  members,  as  if  the  country  were  in  the  midst 
of  a  presidential  campaign  or  a  local  party  fight,  to  induce  that  body 
to  vote  that  the  Fair  be  held  in  the  far  inland  town.  As  poetic  fitness 
or  historic  propriety  are  not  considerations  of  much  weight  with  the 
average  member  of  Congress,  especially  those  hailing  from  the  crude 
and  breezy  West.  Congress  voted  as  the  West  desired,  and  Chicago 
won  the  prize.  All  the  bitterness  of  the  contest,  fortunately,  was  dis- 
sipated in  the  splendid  success  of  the  undertaking;  and  the  beauty  of 
the  fairyland,  created  on  the  borders  of  Lake  Michigan  by  the  aid  of 
its  waters,  made  up  for  the  unrivaled  advantages  of  hill  and  river 
scenery  which  would  have  furnished  the  setting  for  the  gems  of 
architecture  on  the  spot  intended  for  the  exposition  on  Moruingside 
and  Riverside  heights  in  this  city.  By  reason  of  the  fear  that  men's 
minds  might  be  unduly  absorbed  by  an  exciting  presidential  cam- 


524 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


paign  in  1892  (although  that  objection  was  equally  pertinent  in  lsTti). 
it  was  determined  to  postpone  the  Columbian  Fair  to  lsit:',;  while  still 
another  curious  chronological  misfit  was  caused  by  the  excessive 
astronomical  accuracy  which  seized  upon  some  people,  win  reby  they 
were  led  to  insist  that  October  12,  in  1492,  was  really  October  23  by 
the  later  Gregorian  correction  of  the  calendar.  Therefore,  preferring 
astronomical  exactness  to  the  historical  associations,  they  demanded 
that  October  21, 1892,  be  proclaimed  the  anniversary  of  the  discovery, 
and  President  Harrison  accordingly  made  official  announcement  of 
this  date  as  that  for  the  national  celebration.  To  the  credit  of  New 
York  State  and  city  it  must  be  said  that  this  painful  Gregorian  cor- 
rectness was  disregarded,  and  October  12  made  a  legal  holiday  by 
legislative  action.  The  city  began  the  celebration  on  Sunday.  ( October 
8,  in  the  various  churches,  where  discourses,  appropriately  comment- 
ing on  the  great  providential  event,  were  very  generally  delivered.  At 


(  OLI  MBIA  CELKBK ATION  MEDAL. 


Twenty-second  Street,  on  Fifth  Avenue,  an  arch  was  built  of  trellis 
work,  covered  with  evergreens.  From  Twenty-second  to  Thirty-fourth 
Street,  along  Fifth  Avenue,  one  hundred  standards  were  placed  on 
either  side  of  the  street,  bearing  gonfalons  or  pointed  banners  with 
the  arms  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Lines  were  stretched  across  the 
street  from  one  to  the  other  of  each  pair,  from  which  were  suspended 
Hags  and  Chinese  lanterns.  At  Fifty-eighth  Street  there  was  another 
arch  painted  to  resemble  marble,  adorned  with  bas-reliefs.  The  whole 
structure  was  L60  feet  high  and  120  feet  wide,  the  opening  80  feet 
high  and  40  feet  wide.  There  were  fountains  on  either  side  of  it.  and 
the  bas-reliefs  in  the  panels  represented  Columbus  at  the  Convent  of 
Rnhida,  and  Columbus  at  the  Courl  of  Spain.  On  October  10  the  cele- 
bration proper  began  with  a  school  and  college  parade,  in  which 
2"). 000  persons  took  part.  The  boys  of  the  public  schools  had  been 
drilled  for  months,  and  they  marched  like  trained  soldiers.    On  Octo- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


525 


ber  11  there  was  a  naval  parade,  led  by  United  Stales  ships  ;in<l  ;i  few 
French,  Italian,  and  Spanish  war  vessels.  The  parade  passed  up  the 
North  River;  as  the  United  States  ships  anchored  in  two  lines  the 
others  sailed  up  between,  and,  returning,  sailed  between  them  a  sec- 
ond time.  In  the  evening  there  was  a  parade  of  Catholic  Societies. 
October  12  was  the  high  day  of  the  festival.    All  business  was  sus- 


flfty   thousand  persons 


pended  by  act  of  the  State  authorities; 
marched  in  the  parade  on  that 
day,  the  line  of  march  being  from 
the  Battery  to  Fifty-ninth  Street. 
During  the  day  there  was  un- 
veiled the  handsome  statue  of 
Columbus,  standing  upon  a  lofty 
column,  on  the  circle  at  Fifty- 
ninth  Street  and  Eighth  Avenue, 
Central  Park;  this  being  a  gift  to 
the  city  by  Italian  citizens.  In 
the  evening  there  was  a  parade 
illuminated  by  gas  and  electric- 
light  devices;  fifty  floats  passed 
before  the  delighted  spectators, 
presenting  historical  and  alle- 
gorical scenes,  and  five  thousand 
bicycles  ridden  by  ladies  and 
gentlemen  formed  a  striking  fea- 
ture of  the  procession. 

In  preparation  for  the  World's 
Fair  at  Chicago  the  countries  of 
the  world  had  been  invited  to  par- 
ticipate in  a  grand  international 
naval  display  at  New  York  in  the 
spring  of  1893.  The  rendezvous 
for  the  assembling  of  this  fleet  of 
many  nations  was  appointed  in 
Hampton  Roads,  Virginia,  where 
the  squadron  of  the  United  States 
"  new  "  navy  were  waiting  to  re- 
ceive them.    Neither  municipal 

jealousy  nor  political  chicanery  could  prevent  the  display  from 
taking  place  in  the  only  harbor  of  America  where  there  could 
be  at  once  ample  room  for  its  movements,  and  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  its  being  seen  and  appreciated  by  an  unlimited  num- 
ber of  spectators.  On  April  25  the  foretaste  of  succeeding  days 
came  in  the  shape  of  the  three  Spanish  caravels,  made  as  nearly 
as  possible  like  the  Santa  Maria,  the  Pinta,  and  the  Nina,  which 
constituted  the  fleet  of  Columbus  in  1102.     Thev  had  been  con- 


COLUMBUS  STATUE — 
AND  59TH 


-EIGHTH  AVENUE 
STREET. 


526 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


struct ed  in  Spain  and  successfully  towed  across  t  he  ocean  by  a  United 
States  cruiser.   On  the  morning  of  thai  day  they  were  towed  up  the 
North  River  and  anchored  off  Ninety-second  Street.    Meantime,  on 
thai  same  day,  the  international  licet  arrived  from  Hampton  Koads. 
and  anchored  in  the  Lower  Bay,  just  outside  the  Narrows.    <>u  the 
morning  of  April  26,  the  vessels  passed  up  to  their  anchoring  ground 
in  the  North  River.    The  procession  was  imposing  and  impressive 
beyond  all  language  to  describe.    Up  between  the  Narrows,  past  the 
Staten  Island  shore,  between  Castle  William  and  the  Statue  of  Lib- 
erty, past  the  Battery  and  between  the  .Manhattan  and  Jersey  banks 
of  the  noble  Hudson,  they  steamed  in  the  most  stately  and  steady 
manner,  the  huge  machines  obeying  the  impulse  of  their  engines  and 
the  guidance  of  their  rudders  as  if  they  were  things  of  life,  keeping 
distances  like  hies  of  trained  soldiers,  without  a  break  or  an  error. 
On  the  west  side  the  line  was  headed  by  the  United  States  cruiser 
Philadelphia,  followed  by  others  of  the  "  White  Squadron."  the  New- 
ark, the  Atlanta,  the  San  Francisco,  the  Bancroft,  the  Bennington, 
the  Baltimore,  the  Chicago,  the  Yorktown,  the  Charleston,  the  Vesu- 
vius, and  the  Concord.   These  were  followed  by  the  Nuevo  Julio.  Ar- 
gentine Republic;  the  Van  Speyck.  Xetherland;  the  Kaiserin  Augusta 
and  Seeadler,  Germany;  the  line  closing  with  the  United  Stales  moni- 
tor, the  Miantonomah.    Accurately  opposite  each  ship  of  this  line 
moved  the  vessels  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river,  hundreds  of  feet 
away,  led  by  the  Blake,  Australia,  Magicienne,  and  Tartar.  Greal 
Britain;  the  Dimitri  Donstoi.  General  Admiral,  and  Uynda.  Kussia: 
the  Arethuse.  llussard.  and  Jean  Bart.  France;  the  Etna  and  the 
Giovanni  Bauson,  Italy;  the  Infanta  Isabella,  Keina  Kegenta.  ami 
Nueva  Espana,  Spain ;  t  he  Aguidiban,  the  Tiradentes,  and  i he  Repub- 
lics, Brazil.    Places  for  anchorage  had  been  carefully  marked  for 
each,  and  as  they  reached  their  ground  every  vessel  remained  station- 
ary like  a  sentinel  on  guard.    On  the  next  day.  Thursday,  the  27th. 
President  Cleveland  reviewed  the  licet  by  passing  between  the  two 
lines  in  the  United  States  dispatch  boat  the  Dolphin,    dust  above 
the  two  leading  vessels,  opposite  Eighty-eighth  street,  the  Dolphin 
came  to  anchor;  whereupon  the  Admirals  and  Captains  proceeded 
from  their  several  ships  to  pay  their  respect  to  the  President .    On  Fri- 
day, 2Sth,  the  sailers  and  marines  from  the  ships  formed  a  parade. 
Landing  at  Forty-second  Street,  they  marched  down  Broadway.  Gov- 
ernor Flower,  escorted  by  Troop  A.  led  the  way.  followed  by  the 
United  States  sailors  and  marines,  and  then  by  I  hose  from  the  foreign 
ships,  the  commanding  officers  riding  in  carriages.    There  were  1 12.000 
men  in  line.   In  the  evening  t  he  Chamber  of  Commerce  gave  a  banquel 
to  the  visiting  officers,  at  which  four  hundred  and  fifty  guests  sat 
down. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


THE  CLIMAX   OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 

S  Mayor  William  L.  Strong  began  his  administration  on  Jan- 
uary 1,  1895,  the  citizens  watched  with  much  interest  to 
see  what  use  he  would  make  of  his  appointing  powers. 
These  had  been  considerably  modified  by  the  new  State 
Constitution  of  1894.  The  Mayor  was  enabled  to  gel  rid,  much  more 
quickly  and  readily  than  before,  of  officials  whom  he  deemed  detri- 
mental to  the  service,  and  left  over  from  the  preceding  administra- 
tion.  Tweed's  charter  provided  that  most  of  the  appointments  should 


THE  BOWLING  GREEN  TO-DAY. 

exceed  the  Mayor's  term,  so  that  even  a  successor  out  of  harmony 
with  Tammany  would  be  seriously  handicapped  in  seeking*  to  serve 
the  citizens  against  the  politicians.  Mayor  Strong's  appointments 
gave  universal  satisfaction.  We  need  mention  only  a  few:  Mr.  Fran- 
cis M.  Scott,  the  Democrat  who  had  led  the  forces  of  reform  in  1890, 
was  made  Corporation  Counsel;  Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Republican 
candidate  for  Mayor  in  1886,  and  now  an  efficient  member  of  the 
United  States  Civil  Service  Commission,  was  appointed  President  of 


528 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  Police  Commission.  About  him  and  the  Commissioner  of  Street 
Gleaning,  Colonel  George  E.  Waring,  centers  the  chief  interest  of  the 
new  administration.  Mr.  Roosevelt,  with  characteristic  vigor,  pro- 
posed that  the  police  force  should  do  its  duty,  lie  soon  infused  new 
life  into  the  department,  and  raised  the  tone  of  the  service  to  such  a 
degree  that  the  hang-dog  look,  resulting  from  conscious  guilt  because 
of  their  disgraceful  practices  recently  brought  to  light,  was  replaced 
by  one  of  manly  pride.  Admission  to  the  force  w  as  possible  only  by 
fitness,  and  continuance  on  it  only  by  merit,  and  merit  was  ascer- 
tained by  such  searching  and  unmistakable  methods  that  each  man 
was  put  on  his  mettle  to  do  his  best  in  his  particular  line  of  duty.  It 
was  impossible  that  under  this  new  regime  any  laws  upon  the  Statute 
books  should  remain  unenforced;  and  here  came  difficulties.  The 
liquor  laws  had  been  left  to  fall  into  "  innocuous  desuetude  "  under 
the  former  system.  Their  enforcement  produced  wrath  among  the 
citizens  of  foreign  birth.  The  Germans  had  nobly  stood  by  the  cause 
of  reform  and  had  helped  to  overwhelm  Tammany,  but  the  exertions 
of  the  police  sadly  interfered  with  their  beer-drinking  on  Sunday.  It 
might  have  been  somewhat  more  reasonable  to  find  fault  with  the  laws 
restricting  this  privilege,  and  to  agitate  for  a  change  in  them;  while 
at  the  same  time  commending  that  thoroughness  and  uprightness  of 
administration  which  conscientiously  sought  to  enforce  such  laws  as 
were  upon  the  boohs.  Bu1  this  position  was  not  taken  even  by  such  an 
intelligent  leader  of  opinion  as  the  New  York  Staats-Zeitung,  so  often 
found  on  the  side  of  reform  and  purify  in  city  politics.  It  encouraged, 
rather  than  allayed,  the  opposition  against  the  administration,  so 
that  at  the  next  municipal  election  the  German  citizens  supported 
Tammany,  whereby  one  or  two  city  offices  were  recovered,  and  some  of 
their  henchmen  were  sent  to  Albany.  There  the  Raines  law  was  con- 
cocted to  deal  with  the  liquor  question,  and  at  the  same  time  to  save 
the  Republican  supremacy.  This  took  the  licensing  of  the  traffic  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  municipal  government,  making  it  a  State  affair, 
under  the  charge  of  a  Commissioner.  We  are  not  yet  through  with  the 
Raines  law.  and  whether  it  has  accomplished  its  double  purpose  re- 
mains to  be  seen. 

People  soon  began  to  see  that  something  wonderful  had  happened 
in  the  Department  of  Street  Cleaning.  The  streets  were  actually 
cleaned,  the  men  employed  really  worked,  whereas  before  these  hum- 
ble functionaries  had  merely  posed  at  working,  nourishing  brooms 
and  shovels  with  no  reference  to  their  base  mundane  uses,  but  only 
as  badges  of  office,  as  guarantees  for  the  right  kind  of  vote  before  elec- 
tion, or  reward  for  the  same  thereafter.  Now  "  W  hite  Angels  "  took 
their  place,  an  affectionate  and  grateful  title  bestowed  by  the  happy 
New  York  public  upon  t  he  men  employed  by  ( "olonel  Waring.  He  had 
devised  a  uniform  for  his  laborers  consisting  of  a  white  jacket  or  coat 
and  white  pants,  which  made  the  cleaners  at  once  conspicuous.  The 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GRKATI-k  NI£W  YORK 


f>2<) 


men  were  chosen  as  in  the  police  department  for  their  efficiency  to  do 
the  work  required,  and  on  no  other  ground  whatever,  and  an  esprit  <le 
corps  soon  awoke  among  them  born  of  self-respect  and  pride  in  their 
work.  Tremendous  was  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Com- 
missioner to  make  him  yield  to  political  influences  in  his  appoint- 
ments. But  he  trusted  to  the  thorough  accomplishment  of  the  pur- 
pose of  the  department  to  win  the  support  of  public  opinion.  At  one 
time  the  next  in  command  under  him,  alarmed  by  the  threats  of  poli- 
ticians, said :  "  Colonel,  we  will  have  to  do  something  to  pacify  them." 
"Certainly,"  was  the  reply;  "go  right  out  and  do  something:  clean 
the  streets.'  "  The  streets  were  cleaned,  and  the  public  sustained  the 
Commissioner  enthusiastically.  It  was  a  unique  event  when  the  de- 
partment turned  out  in  parade  for  the  first  time.  The  citizens  ob- 
tained thereby  ocular  evidence  of  the  excellent  discipline  and  the 
almost  military  or- 
ganization of  the 
force.  The  health 
of  the  city  was  ma- 
terially improved 
by  the  cleanliness 
of  the  streets,  and 
even  the  children 
in  the  poorer  dis- 
tricts of  the  city 
have  been  roused 
to  a  sense  of  pride 
in  the  condition  of 
the  thoroughfares 
in  their  vicinity, 
and  second  the  ef- 
forts of  the  depart- 
ure n  t  to  keep 
things  tidy.  In  winter  the  heavy  snowfalls  are  not  allowed  to 
render  the  city  difficult  for  traffic  or  disgusting  to  Hie  sight.  In 
an  incredibly  short  time  the  snow  is  gone,  and  the  streets  as 
clean  and  dry  as  in  summer.  Altogether,  therefore,  the  result 
of  the  upheaval  against  Tammany  proved  satisfactory  thus  far, 
and  the  municipal  housecleaning  was  fitly  symbolized  by  this 
efficient  cleaning  of  the  city's  streets.  But  it  is  nevertheless  a 
sad  commentary  on  what  things  were  before,  that  Ave  are  all  so 
heartily  congratulating  ourselves  and  so  eagerly  surprised  to  find 
this  department  simply  performing  the  duties  assigned  to  it,  and  real 
izing  for  our  streets  what  lias  long  been  the  commonest  and  entirely 
expected  condition  in  European  cities. 

The  happy  event  of  1851  had  rather  a  sad  ending  in  1895.  The 
same  sportsman  who  had  so  gallantly  come  to  race  for  the  America's 


FOURTEENTH  STREET  WEST  OF  UNION  SQUARE. 


:,;;<> 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Cup  in  INiKl.  mid  had  borne  his  defeat  so  royally  that  he  won  all 
hearts,  came  over  again  in  ls!t.~>  with  a  sloop-yacht  called  Valkyrie  III. 
the  second  boat  of  that  name  having  been  sunk  in  a  collision  during 
the  1  aces  off  t  he  English  coast  in  1  S!>4.  The  Americans  pitted  against 
her  a  new  boat,  the  Defender,  built  on  an  entirely  different  plan.  The 
American  yachts  in  former  races  had  all  been  provided  with  a  center- 
board.  The  Defender  was  without  one.  but  her  keel  was  run  down 
into  the  water  thin  and  sharp  so  as  to  have  very  much  the  effed  of  a 
permanent  centerboard.  This  w  as  more  in  accordance  with  The  Brit- 
ish ideas,  which  had  never  tolerated  that  feature.  It  was  thought, 
therefore,  that  the  results  of  the  race,  whatever  nation  they  might 


WORLD         SCN  TRIBUNE  TIMES 


NEWSPAPEB  OFFICES   DOWN  town. 


favor,  would  be  all  the  more  satisfactory  from  the  similarity  of  con- 
st ruction  between  the  two  champions.  The  tirst  race  was  sailed  off 
Sandy  Hook  on  September  7.  ISO").  The  Defender  won  in  eight  min- 
utes and  twenty  seconds.  There  was  a  good  breeze,  and  all  circum- 
stances contributed  i<>  make  the  event  a  lair  test.  <  >n  September  10 
the  second  race  took  place.  It  began  badly.  An  excursion  boat  was 
in  t  he  way  of  t  he  1  >ofender.  and  to  avoid  her  she  ran  too  closely  to  the 
Valkyrie.  Although  the  Defender  was  to  leeward  of  her.  and.  there- 
fore, had  the  right  of  way,  the  Valkyrie  did  not  give  her  sufficient 
room,  and  in  turning  struck  her  and  carried  away  her  topmast  rig- 
ging, Compelling  the  lowering  Of  the  topmast.    The  Defender  crossed 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


the  line  and  started  on  tin-  race  but  raised  a  signal  <d'  protest.  The 
race  was  won  by  the  Valkyrie  by  a  very  few  minutes.  Lord  Dunraven, 
the  owner  of  the  Valkyrie,  insisted  on  calling  it  a  race  which  was  the 
more  surprising  as  he  had  generously  refused  to  take  advantage  of  a 
mishap  in  1893.  The  third  race  was  set  for  September  L2.  Every- 
thing was  favorable  for  the  contest:  a  good  breeze,  and  no  excursion 
boats  in  the  way.  When  both  yachts  had  crossed  the  line  to  the 
amazement  of  all  Dunraven  put  his  boat  about  and  went  back  to  his 
anchorage  off  Bay  Ridge.  On  his  return  to  England  he  published 
charges  of  gross  fraud  against  the  owners  of  the  Defender.  These 
were  investigated  at  a  regular  trial,  assisted  by  most  eminent  counsel, 
before  a  committee  composed  of  ex-Secretary  of  the  Navy  Whitney. 
Captain  A.  T.  Mahan,  the  author  of  "  Sea  Power.*'  ex-Minister  to  Eng- 
land E.  -J.  Phelps,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  and  George  L.  Rives.  The 
charges  were  proved  utterly  without  foundation.  Dunraven,  how- 
ever, made  no  apologies,  and  therefore  he  was  expelled  from  the 
membership  of  the  New  York  Yacht  Club.  His  conduct  placed  British 
sportsmanship  in  a  most  extraordinary  light.  The  only  inference  is 
that  the  man  saw  that  defeat  was  inevitable,  and  he  wished  to  rob  the 
Americans  of  the  satisfaction  of  a  fair  test.  In  such  international 
contests,  prejudice  will  always  take  sides  and  be  ready  to  believe  the 
grossest  accusation  against  the  opposite  party.  Enough  thorough 
Britishers  would  cling  to  the  conviction  that  Dunraven  was  right,  and 
the  Yankees  wrong,  to  rob  the  Americans  of  an  indisputable  title  to 
the  trophy,  no  matter  what  any  committee  would  decide. 

The  Presidental  campaign  of  1896  had  again  a  special  interest  for 
Xew  York  City,  because  it  touched  so  closely  the  question  of  finance. 
The  platform  of  the  Democratic  party,  advocating  the  free  coinage  if 
silver  and  repudiating  the  single  gold  standard,  was  looked  upon  as  a 
blow  at  "  sound  money."  and  men  and  newspapers  lost  sight  of  ques- 
tions of  civil  policy  in  their  alarm  at  the  threat  to  the  financial 
policy  of  the  republic,  so  that  party  affiliations  were  quite  disre- 
garded. Several  journals,  hitherto  strongly  Democratic,  supported 
the  Republican  nominee.  New  York,  too,  as  the  financial  center  of 
the  Union,  was  looked  upon  and  frankly  declared  to  be  the  "  enemy's 
country  "  by  the  Democratic  nominee,  Mr.  William  J.  Bryan.  Wish- 
ing to  carry  the  war  into  Africa,  he  decided  that  he  would  receive 
the  formal  notification  of  his  nomination,  and  delivered  his  speech 
of  acceptance  iti  Xew  York.  Accordingly  he  came  to  the  city,  Wednes- 
day. August  12,  having  been  fixed  upon  for  the  ceremony,  and  .Madi- 
son Square  Garden  engaged  to  accommodate  the  audience.  In  for- 
tunately, the  date  fell  during  that  frightful  heated  spell,  of  which  we 
shall  speak  below,  and  this,  with  other  circumstances,  perhaps  con- 
tributed to  make  the  affair  not  so  brilliant  a  success  as  was  hoped. 
Another  event  of  the  campaign  worth  recording  was  the  McKinley 
parade,  which  took  place  on  the  Saturday  before  election  day.  The 


532 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


people  had  been  requested  to  make  this  ;i  "  Flag  Day,"  and  every- 
where flags  were  hung  out  by  householders  of  either  party.  The 
parade  itself  was  remarkable  because  of  the  absence  of  distinctive  or 
obtrusive  party  emblems  or  mot  toes.  The  organizers  of  t  he  Campaign 
were  shrewd  enough  to  encourage  the  idea  that  patriotism  required 
the  sinking  of  party  lines.  Jt  is  estimated  by  some  authorities  that 
12(1.000  people  marched  in  the  procession.  A  feature  worth  notice 
was  that  there  were  no  breaks  or  gaps  in  the  line,  although  it  took 
eight  or  ten  hours  to  pass  any  given  point.  This  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  each  division  of  the  parade  was  told,  with  great  accuracy,  the 
precise  hour  they  were  to  fall  into  line,  and  were  not  required  to  re- 
pair to  the  point  of  assembly  till  a  little  while  before.  This  obviated 
that  endless  waiting,  which  is  apt  to  take  all  enthusiasm  out  of 
paraders,  and  render  them  weary  even  before  the  march  begins. 

When  the  remains  of  General  Grant  were  deposited  in  the  little 
brick  vault  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  in  August,  1885,  active  meas- 
ures were  already  under  way  for  erecting  there  a  splendid  mausoleum 
that  should  worthily  express  a  nation's  estimate  of  the  dead  hero's 
service  to  his  country.  The  work  of  collecting  the  cost  .  $500,000,  was 
in  itself  a  task  of  no  small  difficulty.  The  design  adopted  promised 
to  place  within  the  bounds  of  New  York  a  memorial  outrivaling  that 
reared  to  any  other  great  character  in  any  of  the  cities  of  the  world. 
Work  upon  it  was  begun  onApril  1*7. 1801  ;  the  cornerstone  was  laid  on 
April  27,  1S02.  and  on  April  27.  L897,  it  was  formally  dedicated,  and 
Grant's  remains  removed  from  their  humble  resting-place  to  this 
splendid  tomb.  The  monument  covers  a  space  one  hundred  feet 
square  on  the  ground  line.  In  front,  facing  southward,  a  portico  pro- 
jects, supported  by  six  tinted  columns,  which  is  to  be  surmounted  by 
four  equestrian  statues  of  the  most  prominent  generals  associated 
wit  h  Grant.  <  >u  the  path  near  the  broad  flight  of  steps  is  to  be  placed 
a  pedestal  and  equestrian  statue  of  (ionornl  (irant  himself.  From  the 
main  portion  of  the  structure  rises  a  circular  dome,  surrounded  by 
columns  forming  a  colonnade,  and  supporting  an  outer  gallery,  one 
hundred  and  thirty  feet  above  the  ground  line,  affording  a  splendid 
view  of  the  surroundings.  The  total  height  is  one  hundred  and  sixty 
feet,  which  places  the  topmost  point  more  than  three  hundred  feel 
above  the  level  of  the  river.  Within,  the  ceiling  is  finished  in  the  style 
of  the  Pantheon  at  Koine.  The  center  of  the  interior  rises  to  the  full 
height  of  the  dome,  and  light  penetrates  in  abundant  measure  to  the 
circular  crypt,  beneath  the  level  of  the  main  floor.  Everything  here 
is  finished  in  white  polished  marble,  in  harmony  with  the  pure  white 
of  the  exterior.  The  body  is  placed  in  a  black  granite  sarcophagus, 
space  being  reserved  on  one  side  for  a  similar  sarcophagus  for  the 
deposit  of  I  he  remains  of  Mrs.  Grant.  The  monument,  superb  in  itself, 
is  superbly  located.  The  unrivaled  Palisades  of  the  Hudson  begin 
about  Opposite  its  site;  the  view  sweeps  up  and  down  the  liver  for 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


533 


miles  and  miles  of  bewitching  or  imposing  scenery.  From  the  South 
front  and  porch  no  view  can  be  obtained  of  the  busier  portion  of  the 
great  city :  but  a  glimpse  is  caught  of  the  opposite  shores  of  Jersey, 
and  these  are  abundantly  suggestive  of  the  traffic  that  lies  behind  i  be 
hills  and  woods  intercepting  the  view.  The  place  where  stood  the  lit- 
tle vault  which  held  the  body  of  Grant  for  twelve  years  is  not  left  en- 
tirely unmarked.  It  is  directly  in  the  rear  of  the  mausoleum,  fenced 
off,  and  contains  two  trees,  one  of  which  was  planted  by  the  Chinese 
Ambassador.  Upon  the  South  front  Ave  read  those  simple  words,  no 
mere  platitude  when  Grant  uttered  them;  big  with  the  promise  of  a  re- 
union of  hearts  and  of  a  national  being  then  hardly  hoped  for;  always 
his  desire  and  aim  when  he  had  sheathed  his  sword;  the  words  that 
lent  glory  to  his  first  inaugural  address  as  President:  "  Let  us  have 
peace." 

As  on  General  Grant's  birthday  the  work  had  been  begun,  and 


THE  BATTERY  VIEW  OF  THE  HAY. 


again  the  cornerstone  had  been  laid,  so  now  was  this  day  selected  to 
celebrate  its  completion  and  the  formal  transfer  of  the  mausoleum 
and  its  precious  contents  to  the  keeping  of  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
exercises  while  conducted  on  a  grand  scale  were  yet  marked  by  a  se- 
vere simplicity  fully  in  harmony  with  the  character  of  the  man  in 
whose  honor  and  to  whose  memory  the  monument  was  reared.  At 
about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  President  McKinley  and  party 
were  escorted  from  the  Windsor  Hotel  by  the  Mayor,  in  car- 
riages, attended  by  Cavalry  Troop  A.  The  tomb  was  reached 
about  ten  o'clock,  and  upon  the  speaker's  stand  were  assembled 
Mrs.  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  the  General's  widow,  his  sons  and  their 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


\\i\<-s  ;iik1  children;  ex-President  Cleveland,  several  foreign  am- 
bassadors, members  of  Congress,  and  other  distinguished  people. 
The  exercises  here  were  opened  by  the  singing  of  "America"  by 
a  chorus  under  Damrosch's  direction,  in  which  thousands  of  the 
spectators  joined.  Bishop  Newman,  Grant's  pastor,  then  offered 
a  prayer,  after  which  .Mayor  Strong  introduced  the  President. 
Mr.  McKinley  spoke  briefly,  dwelling  on  the  homely  virtues  of  the 
man  whose  public  achievements  were  known  to  all  the  world;  recall 
ing  the  men  in  civil  life,  and  the  heroes  of  the  land  and  sea  service, 
who  had  preceded  drain  to  the  grave,  or  had  passed  away  since  the 
mausoleum  was  begun;  referring  to  the  union  of  the  Blue  and  <  rray  in 
the  honors  of  the  hour;  and  saying  at  the  close:  "  Let  us  not  forget 
the  glorious  distinction  with  which  the  metropolis,  among  the  fair 
sisterhood  of  American  cities,  has  honored  his  life  and  memory.  With 
a  1 1  t  hat  riches  and  sculpture  can  do  to  render  the  edifice  wort  by  of  the 
man.  upon  a  site  unsurpassed  for  magnificence,  has  this  monument 
been  reared  by  New  York  as  a  perpetual  record  of  his  illustrious 
deeds,  in  the  certainty  that  as  time  passes  around  it  will  assemble, 
wii  li  gratitude  and  reverence  and  veneration,  men  of  all  climes,  races, 
and  nationalities."  The  President's  address  was  followed  by  the  ora- 
tion of  the  dav.  delivered  by  General  Horace  Porter,  to  whose  energy 
and  perseverance  were  mainly  due  the  successful  completion  of  the 
building,  ami  the  raising  of  the  large  amount  of  money  needed.  His 
Oration  was  an  eulogy  on  the  dead  chieftain  and  a  resume  of  his 
career.  He  reminded  the  auditors  that  Grant  was  not  a  dead  mem- 
ory; pointed  out  the  majesty  of  his  achievements;  dwelt  on  some  of 
his  personal  characteristics,  the  evidences  of  his  foresight,  the  policy 
of  mercy  and  forgiveness  he  always  advocated  and  himself  pursued, 
proving  his  statesmanship,  and  explaining  the  tribute  of  grateful  af- 
fection that  lose  from  hearts  all  over  the  Union.  Speaking  of  the 
monument  the  orator  said  among  other  things:  "  It  will  overlook  the 
metropolis  of  the  Republic  which  his  efforts  saved  from  dismember- 
ment; it  will  be  reflected  in  the  noble  waters  of  the  Hudson,  upon 
which  pass  the  argosies  of  commerce,  so  largely  multiplied  by  the 
peace  secured  by  his  heroic  deeds.  The  tolling  of  passing  bells  will 
replace  the  echo  of  his  hostile  guns."  In  presenting  the  monument 
(b-n.  roller,  addressing  Mayor  Strong,  said:  "  And  now.  Mr.  Mayor, 
it  becomes  my  otlicial  duty  on  behalf  of  t  he  <  irant  Monument  Associa- 
tion  to  transfer  through  you  to  the  City  of  New  York  this  National 
memorial.  Its  construction  has  been  the  work  of  willing  hands  ami 
generous  hearts.  About  90,000  patriotic  citizens  have  been  contribu- 
tors to  the  building  fund,  their  subscriptions  ranging  in  amounts 
from  1  cent  to  $5,000,  so  that  it  has  been  an  eminently  popular  sub- 
scription. The  entire  fund  with  accrued  interest  amounts  to  about 
$600,000."  Then  referring  in  complimentary  terms  to  his  several  col- 
leagues in  the  Association;  to  Mr.  John  II.  Duncan,  the  architect  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


535 


designer  of  the  structure;  to  the  sculptor  -J.  Massey  Rhind,from  whose 
hand  came  the  high-relief  decorations;  and  others,  engineers  and 
builders,  who  aided  in  completing  the  splendid  work,  the  orator  said 
in  closing:  "  And  now,  Mr.  .Mayor,  it  only  remains  for  me  to  formally 
transmit  through  you  to  the  custody  of  the  Nation's  metropolis  this 
memorial  tomb,  which  henceforth  is  to  remain  in  the  custody  of  the 
city  over  which  you  have  the  honor  to  preside.''  In  a  few  appropriate 
words  Mr.  Strong  accepted  the  custody  thus  honorably  imposed,  say- 
ing in  part:  "Erected  as  it  was  by  the  voluntary  contributions  of 
nearly  one  hundred  thousand  of  our  fellow-citizens,  mostly  from  the 
territory  of  the  Greater  New  York,  it  will  forever  perpetuate  the 
name  and  fame  of  one  of  the  bravest  military  chieftains  of  the  coun- 
try. .  .  .  Here  will  be  the  shrine  where  his  old  comrades  will 
worship  and  whither  the  people  of  a  grateful  nation  will  journey  to 
offer  the  silent  tribute  of  admiration.  Let  it  be  the  .Mecca  where  pos- 
terity for  ages  to  come  will  gather  fresh  inspiration  for  patriotism. 
Great  in  war.  greater  in  peace,  let  his  memory  never  fade  from  the 
heart  of  a  grateful  Nation." 

While  these  exercises  were  being  conducted  at  the  tomb  itself,  a 
grand  procession  was  on  the  march  from  the  lower  parts  of  the  city, 
and  approaching  it  as  1  he  objective  point.  The  parade  started  sharp- 
ly at  half  past  ten  o'clock,  from  the  corner  of  Madison  Avenue  and 
Twenty-sixth  Street.  The  route  was  along  Madison  Avenue  to  Fifty- 
fifth  Street,  to  Fifth  Avenue,  to  Fifty-ninth  Street,  skirting  Central 
Park  to  the  Boulevard;  along  this  to  Seventy-second  Street,  then 
w  est  ward  to  the  Riverside  Drive,  and  so  to  the  Tomb,  fifty  blocks  fur- 
ther up  town.  By  actual  count  at  the  reviewing  stand  at  the  Tomb, 
58,467  men  passed  by  it;  the  head  of  the  column  coming  up  at  a  f  w 
minutes  after  1  o'clock,  and  the  last  rank  marching  by  at  6.52  P.M. 
The  procession  was  composed  mainly  of  the  military,  cadets  from 
West  Point  in  the  lead.  United  States  land  troops  and  sailors  and 
marines  from  the  war  vessels,  the  militia  of  New  York  State  and  of 
several  others,  headed  by  their  Governors  and  staffs,  in  some  cases 
where  no  militia  had  come  the  Governor  and  staff  alone  being  in  line. 
Three  thousand  boys  of  the  public  schools  of  the  city  also  were  in  the 
parade,  and  as  the  result  of  the  regular  military  organization  into 
companies  and  regiments,  with  the  accompanying  drills,  which  had 
by  this  time  become  a  prominent  feature  of  the  public-school  system, 
these  boyish  soldiers  marched  with  all  the  dignity  and  steadiness  of 
veterans.  Not  till  near  the  end  of  the  march  did  they  show  any  signs 
of  fatigue,  but  not  a  boy  dropped  out  till  the  order  to  disband  came. 
The  boys  wore  medals  inscribed  "  Grant  Monument  Parade.  1897,  P. 
S.  of  N.  Y."  which  were  kept  as  souvenirs.  Another  division  of  spe- 
cial interest  was  that  made  up  of  the  Posts  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic.  The  veterans  were  drawn  up  waiting  for  their  turn  to  fall 
into  line  along  the  Boulevard  from  Fifty-ninth  Street  to  Seventieth 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Street,  with  General  O.  O.  Howard  at  their  head.  All  the  divisions 
that  passed  them  gave  them  a  marching  salute.  At  3.30  the  command 
to  march  was  given  them,  and  a  little  after  half  past  four  they  passed 
the  reviewing  stand;  but  much  to  their  chagrin  the  President  was  no 
longer  there,  as  he  Avas  forced  to  leave  to  review  the  naval  parade. 
A  never-to-be-forgotten  feature  of  the  procession  was  the  part  in  it 
taken  by  veterans  from  the  South.  A  detachment  of  Sons  of  Confed- 
erates formed  one  of  the  divisions,  and  among  them  marched  also 
many  of  the  Confederate  veterans  themselves.  In  carriages  closely 
following  these  were  General  John  B.  Gordon,  and  many  other  Con- 
federate officers.  During  the  long  wait  until  the  time  to  fall  in,  the 
General's  carriage  was  surrounded  by  numerous  Grand  Army  men. 
The  greetings  between  the  old  antagonists  were  very  hearty.  The 
Sons  of  Confederates  and  the  veterans  who  paraded  with  them  wore 
broad-brimmed  light  hats.  They  attracted  instant  attention.  They 
had  two  mounted  color  bearers,  one  carrying  a  broad  United  States 
flag  of  handsome  silk;  the  other  a  pennant  bearing  the  name  of  the 
association.  Just  after  they  fell  into  line  they  passed  between  the 
ranks  of  the  Sons  of  Union  Veterans,  who  cheered  them  heartily  and 
repeatedly.  They  responded  by  lifting  their  hats.  On  passing  around 
the  tomb  one  of  their  officers  dismounted,  took  a  wreath  of  evergreens 
and  roses,  with  crossed  swords  and  an  inscription  in  scarlet  blossoms, 
"  From  Sons  of  Confederates,"  from  Gen.  Gordon's  carriage,  and, 
handing  it  to  a  park  policeman,  asked  him  to  place  it  on  the  sarcopha- 
gus, at  the  same  time  their  bugler  sounding  "  taps."  Next  to  Lincoln 
the  best  friend  the  South  ever  had  was  Grant,  and  this  tribute  of  af- 
fection was  in  recognition  of  that  fact.  The  view  of  the  procession 
along  Riverside  Drive  was  very  fine.  At  certain  elevated  points  be- 
fore the  Tomb  was  reached  the  column  could  be  seen  for  a  long  dis- 
tance up  and  down  the  road,  and  from  the  hill  crowned  by  the  monu- 
ment itself,  up  to  which  all  the  others  led,  the  long-drawn  march  of 
the  three  score  thousand  men  could  be  observed  with  magnificent  ef- 
fect. As  the  head  of  the  column  came  in  sight,  a  signal  corps  on  the 
lofty  bank  communicated  the  fact  to  the  cruiser  New  York,  lying  op- 
posite, and  a  salute  of  twenty-one  guns  burst  from  her  battery.  Two 
lines  of  battle  ships,  of  our  own  navy,  with  representatives  from  those 
of  Spain,  Italy,  France,  and  England,  lay  anchored  in  the  river,  and 
between  them  passed  a  long  array  of  craft  of  every  conceivable  kind, 
mainly  tugs,  excursion  steamers,  with  a  few  private  yachts,  which 
had  started  from  the  Battery  at  2.30  P.M.  At  five  o'clock  the  Presi- 
dent boarded  the  Dolphin;  in  this  he  steamed  down  between  the  pa- 
rading vessels.  But  the  cold  gusts  of  wind  which  had  emptied  the 
stands  on  shore,  made  the  naval  display  even  more  difficult,  and  hence 
no  great  satisfaction  attended  this  portion  of  the  ceremonies.  The 
weather  had  been  mild  and  beautiful  a  few  days  preceding  the  27th. 
Rain  fell  on  the  26th  and  spoiled  some  of  the  decorations.   On  the  day 


538 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  i  be  celebration  the  sun  came  out  brightly,  but  there  was  a  serious 
drop  in  t  lie  temperature,  and  the  wind  blew  a  gale  all  day.  so  that 
heavy  overcoats  and  horse-blankets  were  put  into  requisition  to  pro- 
tect the  persons  of  distinguished  guests,  and  people  descended  from 
the  scats  on  stands  for  which  they  had  paid  one  or  more  dollars  in  or- 
der to  get  into  their  shelter  on  the  pavement. 

The  history  of  New  York  City,  as  we  have  had  abundant  occasion  to 
note  through  several  chapters,  is  largely  a  history  of  parades.  From 
that  first  tine  pageant  in  honor  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  L788  to 
the  one  just  described  the  people  of  New  York  have  displayed  a  re- 
markable aptitude  in  presenting  effective  spectacles  in  their  streets, 
emphasizing  by  inarching  multitudes  their  interest  in  public  events, 
their  appreciation  of  great  enterprises  for  the  common  good,  their  ad- 
miral ion  for  benefactors  of  the  Nation.  And  in  many  of  these  pa- 
rades great  skill  and  taste  were  exhibited  in  symbolizing  by  allegori- 
cal groups  the  sentiments  germane  to  the  occasion,  or  by  historical 
representations  events  especially  deserving  recollection.  Again, 
where  the  claims  of  trade,  industry,  commerce,  needed  remembrance, 
as  particularly  sharing  the  benefits  of  the  occasion  honored,  or  prom- 
ising to  further  the  enterprise  just  initiated. — they  knew  how  to  il- 
lustrate these  various  occupations  and  interests  of  men.  by  vivid  ta- 
bleaux showing  them  in  actual  operation.  Can  this  taste,  and  the 
aptitude  in  gratifying  it.  so  conspicuous  a  trait  of  New  Yorkers,  be 
an  evidence  of  t  he  abiding  influence  of  the  combined  Dutch  and  Flem- 
ish— the  Netherlandish — character  impressed  upon  the  population 
of  the  city  at  its  very  foundation?  Many  a  stately  pageant  does  .Mot- 
ley tell  us  of  in  his  "  Dutch  Republic,"  that  passed  in  gorgeous  array 
through  the  streets  of  Ghent,  or  Ley  den,  or  Brussels,  or  Qtrecht,  or 
Amsterdam.  Commenting  upon  the  fondness  for  these  shows  and 
their  success  in  representing  classical,  mythological,  and  historic  epi- 
sodes. .Motley  is  led  to  say  that  "  the  Netherlanders  were  nothing  if 
not  allegorical."  The  spirit  of  the  Netherlander  t  herefore  must  some- 
how have  clung  to  New  York  all  along,  and  be  hovering  over  her  peo- 
ple even  now.  We  have  diligently  sought  to  bring  that  city  and  her 
people  before  t  he  reader  in  every  period  of  her  history;  as  it  was  when 
Ohristiaensen  wintered  there  in  his  huts  of  bark;  as  it  was  when  the 
1  drectors  came,  and  the  Dutch  Hag  waved  over  it  ;  as  it  was  when  the 
English  came,  and  when  American  Independence  claimed  the  soil  for 
itself;  as  it  was  when  the  Federal  Pageant  marked  the  beginning  of 
Republican  Government.  A  last  lingering  glance  will  regard  the  city 
as  it  was  when  Grant  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  mausoleum,  reared  as  a 
worthy  monument  to  his  deeds  in  saving  the  Republic  and  perpetuat- 
ing < he  Union. 

New  York  is.  of  course,  first  among  the  cities  of  the  Republic,  and 
yet  she  can  not  claim  quite  the  position  of  a  London,  a  Paris,  a  Ber- 
lin, which  those  capitals  occupy  in  their  own  countries.    That  is  con- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


:>:;<.» 


trary  to  the  genius  of  our  laud  and  people,  w  here  no  such  prepon- 
derating or  dominating  influence  would  be  tolerated,  or  can  in  the  na- 
ture of  things  be  accorded,  to  the  habits,  the  opinions,  the  manners  of 
any  collection  of  citizens,  whatever  may  be  their  advantages  of  loca- 
tion or  success  in  municipal  being.    Such  things  an  ly  possible 

where  a  Court  sets  the  tone  of  living,  as  in  London,  Berlin,  Vienna; 
or  where  the  traditions  of  such  influences  abide,  as  they  do  still  in 
republican  Paris.  In  this  again  New  York  is  singularly  like  to  its 
old  namesake.  Amsterdam.  Thai  city,  though  a  metropolis,  is  not  a 
capital,  as  the  others  are;  and  Holland,  with  Its  democratic  instincts, 
in  spite  of  its  monarchical  form  of  government,  as  little  tolerates  a 
dominating  court  or  capital  as  the  United  States. 

But  while  New  York  has  no  court  she  has  her  palaces.  It  is  some- 
thing to  stimulate  the  pride  of  her  poorest  citizens,  that  mansions 
adorn  her  streets,  that  may  well  vie  with  the  homes  of  emperors  and 
kings  in  splendor  or  beauty.  We  look  upon  the  marble  walls  of  the 
Stewart  mansion,  or  the  homes  of  the  Yanderbilts,  the  massive  pile 
of  C.  P.  Huntingdon's  residence,  Tiffany's  peculiar  but  magnificent 
domicile,  the  Aster's  and  other  houses  that  here  and  there  break 
the  conventional  monotony  along  Central  Park, — and  it  should  awak- 
en satisfaction,  not  envy,  that  our  fellow  citizens  by  their  own  brains 
and  capabilities  in  commerce,  finance,  railway  enterprise,  develop- 
ment of  the  country's  natural  resources,  or  what  not  else  of  useful  and 
honorable  industry,  have  been  enabled  to  rear  for  themselves  dwell- 
ings which  even  some  pampered  scion  of  royalty  would  have  to  deem 
fit  for  his  habitation,  whereas  he  occupies  palaces  and  lives  in  indo- 
lent luxury  without  the  turning  of  a  hand  in  useful  occupation,  or  the 
exertion  of  a  mind  in  exhaustive  planning  of  great  enterprises.  T"ie 
plain  burghers  of  Amsterdam,  in  1048,  thought  themselves  as  good  as 
kings  and  erected  the  City  Hall  (now  misnamed  and  misused  as  a 
royal  residence),  equal  to  any  imperial  palace  then  in  Europe.  So  are 
our  citizens  sovereigns  and  princes  and  kings  in  the  realms  of  useful 
human  activity.  They  are  of  our  kin,  before  us  as  before  them  the 
world,  with  all  its  chances  and  its  prizes. 

Quite  as  satisfactory  a  feature,  if  we  look  to  the  appearance  of  the 
city,  are  the  splendid  hotels  that  grace  many  of  our  thoroughfares. 
We  may  linger  fondly  over  the  old  names,  and  mourn  the  departure 
of  the  noble  hostelries  that  once  bore  them.  We  miss  the  Irving 
House  and  the  St.  Nicholas  (hidden  away  somewhere  on  another 
street  quite  foreign  to  our  associations),  and  the  Metropolitan,  and 
the  huge  brick  structure  of  the  New  York,  beloved  of  Southerners;  we 
are  glad  to  find  the  "  semi-moderns  "  still  with  us,  the  Sturtevaut  and 
(lilsey  House  and  Grand  Hotel.  We  comfort  ourselves  particularly 
because  we  find  the  ancient  Astor  and  Brevoort  and  Saint  Denis  still 
on  the  sites  that  knew  them  thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  But  consola- 
tion and  compensation  do  not  fail  to  possess  us  when  we  behold  a 


540  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


Windsor,  or  an  Imperial,  or  n  Plaza  Hotel.  Thus  we  glory  also  in  a 
Savoy,  with  its  magnificent  banqueting  hall,  decorated  in  gold  and 


THE   NKTHEKLAND,  SAVOY,  AND  FLAZA  HOTELS. 

white,  witli  glorious  frescoes.  ;ui<!  fairy  effects  by  moans  of  hidden 
electric  lights.    Then  there  is  the  Netherland.  which  was  saved  from 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


541 


calling  itself  the  "  New  Netherlands  "  by  a  judicious  friend,  and  then 
flopped  over  into  another  mistake  by  leaving  off  the  "  New,"  which 
omission  would  have  rendered  the  plural  form  correct.  And  again, 
language  shrinks  at  its  own  inadequacy  when  it  wants  to  tell  of  a 
Waldorf,  and  its  enormous  and  magnificent  neighbor,  greater  than 
itself,  the  creation  of  the  same  colossal  fortune,  the  two  amalgamated 
in  name  and  identity  as  the  Waldorf-Astoria.  The  wonder  is  that 
such  huge  resorts  for  the  temporary  home  of  strangers,  or  the  easy 
convenience  of  citizens  who  have  a  horror  of  housekeeping,  can  possi- 
bly make  both  ends  meet  while  so  many  of  them  cluster  together  in 
close  proximity. 

The  stranger  is  drawn  to  New  York,  however,  by  many  inducements. 
There  arc  the  mammoth  stores,  often  occupying  a  whole  block,  appar- 
ently devoted  only  to  the  sale  of  drygoods,  but  in  reality  emporiums 
where  can  be  purchased  everything  from  a  clothes-pin  to  a  horseless 
carriage;  where  one  can  go  and  buy  a  handkerchief,  and  also  stock  a 
dwelling  from  garret  to  cellar  with  all  the  appurtenances  of  house- 
keeping. These  stores,  multiplying  in  every  part  of  the  city,  are  rais- 
ing serious  questions  of  economics.  They  are  crowding  to  the  wall 
small  shopkeepers,  many  of  whom  indeed  have  already  given  up  the 
struggle,  glad  of  the  chance  to  become  mere  salesmen  behind  the 
counters  of  their  unmerciful  rivals.  Making  their  profits  on  the  sale 
of  drygoods  mainly,  sold  for  cash,  these  concerns  can  buy  immense 
quantities  of  groceries,  or  furniture,  or  shoes,  at  bottom  prices,  and 
sell  them  at  no  profit  at  all  or  at  so  little  profit  as  to  ruin  the  small 
dealers  if  they  must  compete  with  them.  The  general  public,  how- 
ever, usually  hails  with  joy  the  reduced  prices  regardless  of  economic 
effects. 

Strikingly  impressive  again,  sure  to  attract  the  visitor's  admiring 
attention,  are  the  armories  that  are  now  to  be  found  in  various  parts 
of  the  city.  The  tii si  of  any  pretense  to  architectural  grandeur  was 
that  of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  on  Fourth  and  Lexington  Avenues, 
and  Sixty-sixth  and  Sixty-seventh  Streets.  The  drill  room  measures 
two  hundred  by  three  hundred  feet.  On  April  19,  1893,  the  regiment 
placed  a  bronze  tablet  on  the  building  on  the  corner  of  Fulton  and 
Nassau  Streets,  the  site  of  the  old  Shakespeare  Tavern,  where  on 
August  25,  1S24.  the  Seventh  was  organized,  then  known  as  the 
Twenty-seventh.  The  tablet  represents  the  tavern  in  bas-relief,  .and 
has  upon  it  a  monogram  with  the  figure  "  7  "  as  the  central  pari .  The 
Eighth  Regiment  Armory  is  of  plain  brick,  and  standing  upon  the 
lofty  hill  at  Ninety-fourth  and  Ninety-fifth  Streets  and  Park  Avenue, 
its  great  round  towers  reminding  one  of  some  exaggerated  mediaeval 
castle,  are  seen  far  and  wide.  The  armory  of  Cavalry  Troop  A  is 
placed  directly  against  its  rear,  facing  Madison  Avenue,  so  that  the 
two  buildings  occupy  the  whole  block:  the  later  structure  was  com- 
pleted July  10,  1894.   The  Twenty-second  Regiment  has  a  fine  armory 


542 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


on  the  Boulevard  and  Sixty-seventh  Street,  and  the  Twelfth's  is  near 
by  <»n  Columbus  (Ninth.)  Avenue  and  Sixty-second  Street.  The  Ninth 
Ikis  recently  moved  into  its  new  armory  on  the  old  site  in  Fourteenth 
Street,  a  little  west  of  Sixth  Avenue.  It  is  still  commanded  by  Col- 
onel William  Seward,  who  gave  way  only  for  a  short  time  to  that 
tinsel  soldier  dames  Fist,  who  so  disliked  the  bullets  and  brickbats 
of  the  Orange  Riots  in  1871.    The  Sixty-ninth  is  still  in  the  old 


THE  SPEEDWAY    ALONG  THE  HARLEM  RIVER. 


Seventh's  armory  over  Tompkins  .Market  at  Third  Avenue  and 
Seventh  Street,  but  it  is  to  have  ihe  site  of  New  York  City  College 
when  that  institution  moves  up  town.  A  splendid  and  lofty  stone 
edifice  is  the  hone'  of  the  Seventy-first  Kegiment,  on  Thirty-fourth 
Street  and  Park  Avenue,  winch  was  completed  and  occupied  in 
March,  L894.    Here  are  the  offices  of  the  headquarters  of  the  First 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


..I:; 


Brigade,  commanded  by  General  Louis  Fitzgerald,  to  which  all  the 
New  York  regiments  belong. 

It  must  be  a  source  of  great  sa  I  is  fact  ion  to  the  National  Guardsmen 
when  on  the  march,  thai  so  many  of  the  streets  of  New  York  are  now- 
provided  with  asphalt  pavements.  There  is  also  a  distinct  military 
advantage  about  the  circumstance,  which  the  authorities  of  Paris 
clearly  appreciated.  It  reduces  the  facility  tor  throwing  up  breast- 
works or  barricades,  and  quite  deprives  a  mob  of  the  convenient  am- 
munition of  paving  stones.  Thus  both  for  holiday  exhibitions,  and 
because  of  the  more  serious  utility,  the  soldiers  of  the  militia  must  re- 
gard the  increasing  number  of  asphalted  streets  greatly  to  their  ad- 
vantage. The  bicyclist  may  imagine  that  they  are  made  for  his  spe- 
cial benefit,  but  the3T  have  a  deeper  design;  and  the  ordinary  mortals 
who  own  no  bicycles  may  also  possibly  put  in  a  word  of  approbation 
on  the  merely  sentimental  score  of  affording  a  handsome  appearance 
to  the  city  of  their  habitation.  The  horseman  may  likewise  modes!  ly 
put  forward  a  tribute  of  gratitude,  although  he  must  restrain  his 
steed  from  a  too  tempting  swiftness  over  the  smooth  surface.  The 
city  has  not  forgotten  that  some  people  still  love  horses,  and  that  a, 
horse  that  can  go  ought  to  have  a  chauce  to  prove  his  mettle.  A 
Speedway  for  fast  driving  is  now  under  construction  at  great  cost, 
running  from  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-fifth  Street,  at  the  head  of  the 
viaduct,  dowu  along  the  steep  bluff  at  as  moderate  a  declination  as 
possible,  until  nearly  the  level  of  the  Harlem  River  is  attained,  where 
it  will  stretch  without  rise  or  fall  for  two  and  a  half  miles,  as  far  as 
Dyckman  Street.  It  has  afforded  a  curious  illustration  thus  far  what 
patriotic  citizens  are  willing  to  make  out  of  the  municipal  treasury. 
The  property  to  be  acquired,  or  to  be  damaged,  for  the  construct  >n 
of  the  Speedway,  was  valued  by  sworn  appraisers  at  $200,000.  The 
aggregate  of  the  claims  of  the  ow  ners  of  the  several  portions  amounts 
to  the  nice  round  figure  of  $3,000,000.  The  bridges  over  the  Harlem 
have  been  noticed  in  a  preceding  chapter.  On  February  28,  1896, 
plans  were  approved  for  a  second  East  River  bridge,  to  cross  from 
South  Fifth  Street,  Brooklyn,  to  Delancey  Street,  New  York.  In 
June,  1894,  the  President  signed  t  he  bill  authorizing  the  construction 
of  the  New  Jersey  and  New  York  Bridge  over  the  North  River,  to  land 
in  New  York  between  Fifty-ninth  and  Sixtieth  Streets,  for  the  use  of 
railways  mainly.  Work  is  going  on  upon  both  these  bridges  at  the 
present  time,  but  as  yet  very  obscurely.  Rapid  transit,  a  problem 
once  thought  solved  by  the  elevated  railw  ays,  and  again  by  the  cable- 
roads,  has  been  thrown  back  upon  the  people  by  the  very  effectiveness 
of  their  operation,  causing  an  increase  in  the  inhabitants.  In  1894 
the  people  voted  that  |50,000.000  be  expended  on  the  solution  of  the 
problem  by  some  new  plan.  The  Commission  went  to  work  bravely 
and  then  were  stopped  suddenly  by  a  court  decision  in  1896,  because 
their  designs  threatened  far  to  exceed  the  cost  voted  on.  and  the 


544 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


excess  would  render  their  action  unconstitutional.  The  plans  adopted 
(and  which  may  yet  at  some  future  day  be  unhampered  by  legal  in- 
junctions) involved  an  underground  railway  starting  near  the  foot  of 
W  hitehall  Street,  to  run  beneath  State  Street  and  Broadway  to  Fifty- 
ninth  Street,  under  the  Boulevard  to  Ninety-third  Street,  by  viaduct 
to  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-third  Street,  again  by  viaduct  to  One 
Hundred  and  Fifty-first  Street,  under  the  Boulevard  to  One  Hundred 
and  Fifty-sixth,  viaduct  to  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-ninth,  under  the 
Boulevard  to  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-ninth,  and  under  Eleventh  Ave- 
nue to  One  Hundred  and  Eighty-fifth  Street.  A  branch  was  to  start 
at  Broadway  and  Fourteenth  Street  to  Fourth  Avenue,  under  Fourth 
Avenue  to  Ninety-eighth  Street,  by  viaduct  to  the  Harlem  River,  cross- 
ing the  latter  by  a  bridge.  The  city  is  still  busy,  as  was  noted  before, 
with  the  extension  of  its  water-works  and  the  increase  of  the  water- 
supply.  In  1890  the  consumption  of  water  was  110  millions  of  gallons 
per  diem;  in  L895  it  had  increased  to  200  millions  daily. 

The  necessity  of  an  ample  water-supply  for  cleanliness,  comfort, 
and  health  cau  hardly  be  overestimated.  Compared  with  former 
times  the  city  is  singularly  free  from  epidemic  diseases.  Not  Only 
every  decade,  but  several  times  each  decade,  the  smallpox  or  yellow 
fever  was  wont  to  devastate  the  little  city  below  Chambers  Street  or 
Canal  Street,  until  the  middle  of  this  century.  Now  with  a  popula- 
tion approaching  two  millions  no  serious  outbreak  of  pestilence  ha,s 
occurred  for  a  score  of  years.  Never  was  the  city's  sanitary  condition 
put  to  a  severer  strain  than  (hiring  the  summer  of  1896.  On  Wednes- 
day. August  5,  four  deaths  occurred  from  the  excessive  heat,  and  ihe 
new  spa pci  s  the  next  day  announced  in  headlines  that  it  was  the 
"  worst  day"  of  the  season  thus  far.  But  matters  grew  incredibly 
worse  before  another  week  had  elapsed.  <>n  the  6th  the  deaths  were 
reported:  on  Saturday,  the  8th,  there  were  ten.  Then  there  was  a  sud- 
den leap  to  forty-five  deaths  on  Sunday  the  9th.  The  next  day  (10th) 
seventy-two  deaths  occurred,  and  two  hundred  prostrations.  On  the 
next,  Tuesday,  August  11,  the  citizens  were  appalled  by  a  record  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  deaths  from  the  heat,  and  three  hundred 
prostrations.  Even  yet  the  death  angel  was  not  through  with  the 
afflicted  city;  ninety-three  deaths  on  Wednesday  (12th),  with  three 
hundred  and  fourteen  people  prostrated;  and  sixty-eight  deaths  on 
Thursday,  the  13th,  closing  the  awful  list.  Thus  i  he  nine  days  had 
carried  off  four  hundred  and  twenty  victims,  the  temperature  for  the 
nine  days  averaging  00.77  degrees  Fahrenheit.  The  heat  did  not 
reach  100  degrees  at  any  time  during  this  period.  It  was  rather  the 
continuance  of  it  night  and  day.  the  absolute  stagnation  of  the  air, 
and  the  oppressive  humidity,  that  made  these  days  so  trying  to  all 
and  fatal  to  so  many.  Yet  it  was  t  he  heat  pure  and  simple  and  no  dis- 
ease produced  or  fostered  by  the  high  temperature  that  caused  the 
death-record  to  rise  to  such  alarming  figures.    As  was  intimated  be- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK.  545 

fore,  the  remarkable  cleanliness  of  the  streets,  by  the  thorough  work 
of  Col.  Waring's  department,  prevented  the  steaming  atmosphere 
from  breeding  the  pestilence  that  usually  attends. 

It  is  in  the  poorer  districts  on  the  east  side  ltd  ween  the  Bowery  and 
the  East  River,  that  the  greatest  sufferings  prevail  during  healed 
terms.  Here  people  are  huddled  together  in  tenement  houses,  con- 
taining four  families  on  a  floor,  and  mounting  up  floor  after  floor  to 
the  fifth  story.  Not  content  with  choking  people  to  death  in  this 
manner,  with  a  narrow  street  in  front,  some  of  the  landlords  have  put 
up  rear  tenements  on  the  same  lots,  separated  from  the  front  building 
by  scarcely  twenty  feet.  So  crying  is  this  evil,  in  its  cruelty  to  those 
dwelling  in  such  places,  and  in  its  peril  to  the  general  health  of  the 

city,  that  a  move- 
ment has  been  late- 
ly organized  com- 
pelling the  tearing- 
down  of  these  rear 
tenements.  Yet  in 
spite  of  the  discom- 
forts and  miseries 
besetting  them, 
the  multitudes  who 
crowd  these  dis- 
tricts cannot  be  in- 
duced to  leave  the 
city  for  the  coun- 
try, in-  to  dwell  in 
airy  homes  in  town? 
bordering  on  the 
city.  The  fascina- 
tion of  the  city  holds  these  people.  Tin-  instinct  of  segregation  possess- 
es them;  in  a  blind,  unreasoning  way  they  feel  it  is  good  to  be  near 
others  of  their  kind.  The  brilliant  lights, the  gayeties,  pageants,  shops, 
bustle  of  a  great  city,  all  have  a  charm  for  them.  They  want  to  be  par- 
ticipants in  the  great  throb  of  life  around  them,  though  often  their 
own  individual  breath  is  drawn  with  pain.  For  the  criminal  classes 
too  the  multitude  is  a  hiding  place,  and  the  serried  masses  their 
proper  prey.  Thus  there  is  indeed,  as  one  thoughtful  student  of  city 
life  expresses  it,  a  ,"  threat  "  about  great  cities.  They  act  as  load- 
stones upon  the  surrounding  country,  drawing  indeed  its  best,  but 
also  its  worst,  and  apt  to  make  its  average  material  worse 
rather  than  better.  Religious  principles  weaken  as  religious  as- 
sociations are  abandoned,  and  in  the  crowd  men  and  families  are 
lost  to  religious  surveillance  and  pastoral  care.  The  threat  of 
New  York  city  life,  as  compared  with  that  of  London,  is  greater 
because  the  masses  here  are  not  homogeneous  as  they  are  there. 


546 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


either  in  nationality  or  faith.  In  New  York  the  preponderance 
of  the  foreign  element,  divided  into  a  score  of  vastly  differing 
peoples,  makes  it  difficull  to  deal  with  the  "submerged  tenth.*' 
and  there  is  no  one  church,  not  even  the  Catholic,  thafl  can  go 
in  among  the  masses,  as  the  Anglican  Church  can  do  in  Lon- 
don, and  claim  as  its  lost  lambs  or  sheep  the  miserable  creatures  that 
need  redemption  or  rescue.  A  dozen  must  enter  the  field  at  once, 
often  at  cross  purposes  with  each  other,  and  rendering  confused  and 
indirect  the  efforts  to  reclaim;  as  constantly  some  hostile  creed  repu- 
diates the  work  already  done  because  not  done  along  its  own  cher- 
ished lines  or  because  upsetting  some  of  its  own  peculiar  tenets. 

Prom  this  darker  picture, which  it  behooves  us  not  to  forget, we  may 
well  turn  to  a  brighter,  lest  gloom  overwhelm  the  sympathetic  soul. 
Ere  we  close  this  volume  we  must  not  fail  to  indulge  in  a  brief  glance 
at  the  later  higher  life  of  the  city.  And  as  a  natural  transition  from 
the  one  view  to  the  other,  we  begin  with  the  University  Settlement, 
or  University  Extension,  as  the  movement  is  variously  styled.  Plac- 
ing themselves  right  in  the  midst  of  the  poor  and  wretched,  at  iM'»  De- 
la  ncey  Street,  here,  as  in  London,  men  and  women  of  education,  with 
University  training,  endeavor  to  elevate  taste  and  enlist  sympathy 
for  the  pure  and  the  good  by  direct  contact  with  the  people  and  earn- 
est instruction  in  that  which  is  highest  in  thought  or  art  or  nature. 
As  an  evidence  of  the  late  higher  life  and  its  connection  with  the  past, 
t  he  extension  of  the  Park  system  deserves  a  share  of  our  attention  and 
commendation.  The  people's  pleasure  grounds  are  an  important  fac- 
tor in  the  people's  elevation,  and  New  York  has  gone  far  ahead  of  any 
city  in  the  world  in  providing  these  in  amplest  measure.  The  new 
territory  north  of  the  Harlem  has  been  utilized  to  furnish  several 
large  parks  possessing  by  nature  many  of  the  advantages  which  art 
was  compelled  to  supply  on  this  side  of  t  he  river.  Jerome  Park.  ( 'lare- 
mont  Park.  Van  Cortlandl  Park,  Bronx  Park,  Crotona  Park,  Pelham 
Bay  Park — combine  attractions  of  hill  and  dale  and  woodland  and 
bay  scenery,  which  the  hand  of  the  landscape  gardener  can  aid  in  ren- 
dering all  the  more  bewitching.  Four  thousand  acres,  or  live  times 
the  area  of  Central  Park,  are  thus  reserved  for  the  purpose  of  promot- 
ing health  and  taste,  ends  usually  not  greatly  emphasized  where  com- 
merce reigns  supreme.  Historic  associations  also  lend  their  charm. 
The  Van  Cortlandl  Park  contained  the  old  family  mansion,  and  this 
has  been  set  aside  as  a  historical  cabinet.  Again,  science  claims  as  her 
own  parts  of  these  beautiful  reservations.  In  Bronx  Park  there  is  to 
be  laid  out  a  Botanic  (Jarden.  with  a  museum  having  a  front  of  304 
feet  and  50  feet  dee]),  to  be  later  supplied  with  two  wings  two  hundred 
feet  long.  In  another  part  of  the  Park  a  Zoological  Garden  is  to  be 
provided,  far  surpassing  the  extempore  affair  in  Central  Park.  At 
the  Battery,  what  Mas  once  Castle  Garden,  squalid  and  malodorous, 
is  now  a  handsome  Aquarium,  opened  on  December  10.  1896.  con- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


r.iT 


verted  to  its  present  uses  at  a  cost  of  half  a  million  dollars,  and  en- 
dowed with  a  quarter  of*  a  million;  no  entrance  fee  is  charged,  so  that 
the  display  of  these  inhabitants  of  the  deep,  not  otherwise  accessible 
to  study,  is  open  alike  to  rich  and  poor.  In  Manhattan  Park,  the  an- 
nex of  Central  Park,  at  Eighth  Avenue  and  Seventy-seventh  Street, 
stands  the  large  and  handsome  structure  of  the  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  containing  a  marvelous  collection  of  shells  presented  by  Miss 
Catharine  L.  Wolfe,  whose  benefactions  to  the  Museum  of  Art  have 
also  been  most  munificent.  Birds  and  beasts  are  here  shown  in  the 
forms  of  life  by  the  taxidermist's  art;  a  notable  feature  being  the  rep- 
resentation of  great  varieties  of  birds  with  their  nests  and  eggs  as  in 
real  life.  Skeletons  also  furnish  data  for  the  student  and  observer, 
among  them  being  those  of  primeval  mastodons. 

Free  to  the  people  also  are  the  treasures  of  art  stored  in  the  exten- 
sive galleries  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  in  Central  Park.  Here  the 
possessors  of  great  wealth  have  vied  with  each  other  to  bestow  upon 
the  city  the  most  rare  and  costly  canvases.  Meissonier's  "  Friedland, 
1807,"  was  bought  by  Judge  Henry  Hilton  for  $69,000,  and  presented 
to  the  Museum,  Rosa  Bonheur's  "  Horse  Fair,"  famous  all  over  the 
world,  and  familiarized  by  engravings,  painted  by  order  of  A.  T.  Stew- 
art, was  bought  by  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  for  $55,500,  and  given  to  the 
people's  art  gallery.  "  Champigny,"  the  scene  of  the  last  stand  made 
by  the  Paris  Commune  in  1871,  by  Detaille,  costing  $35,000,  is  also  a 
gift  of  Judge  Hilton's.  Josef  Israel's  "  Maternity,"  an  exquisite  life- 
size  interior,  representing  a  fisherman's  hut,  with  a  young  woman 
seated  by  a  cradle  and  daintily  preparing  garments  for  the  great 
event  awaited,  also  a  canvas  worth  its  tens  of  thousands,  is  another 
gift  by  a  liberal  citizen's  hand  to  his  fellow  citizens  of  less  fortune  m  i 
equal  love  of  art.  Here  Rubens  and  Rembrandt  and  Jan  Steen,  and  a 
host  of  noble  old  Dutch  and  Flemish  masters  educate  the  eye  to  esti- 
mate the  true  merits  of  the  painter's  brush.  Miss  Catharine  L.  Wolfe 
at  her  death  left  all  her  rich  collection  of  paintings  (and  $200,000  be- 
sides to  take  care  of  them),  so  that  an  additional  wing  had  to  be  built 
to  contain  them  properly.  But  besides  paintings  the  people  here  may 
look  upon  specimens  of  architecture  that  are  world-famous.  Models 
of  the  Parthenon,  the  Pantheon,  the  Notre  Dame  of  Paris,  reproduce 
these  structures  on  a  small  scale,  but  furnish  sufficient  evidence  of 
their  original  grandeur.  In  cabinets  without  number  specimens  of 
the  ancient  glass  maker's  art  abound;  the  Egyptian  sarcophagus 
gapes  to  show  its  rifled  interior,  and  a  hall  of  sculpture  shows  what 
W.  W.  Story  and  some  others  of  our  land  have  done  to  win  the  admi- 
ration of  older  adepts. 

To  the  art  of  music  two  noble  temples  have  been  recently  erected  in 
the  city.  On  Broadway,  between  Thirty-ninth  and  Fortieth  streets, 
stands  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  a  huge  structure  of  brick  and 
iron,  with  a  stage  ninety-six  feet  wide,  seventy-six  feet  deep,  and  one 


:>is 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


hundred  and  twenty  feet  high;  big  enough,  therefore,  to  contain  a 
good-sized  church.  It  was  opened  in  1883,  and  has  been  devoted  to  the 
highest  class  of  opera.  .Most  of  the  Wagner  operas  have  here  been 
produced  with  telling  effect.  But  it  has  never  been  exclusive  in  its 
education  of  the  people;  during  the  season  of  1891  to  1892  it  pre- 
sented the  best  examples  of  Dalian  and  French  opera.  Sometimes 
when  it  appears  questionable  whether  a  season  can  be  made  profitable 
with  the  costly  settings  and  the  vastly  expensive  singers,  there  are 
always  found  citizens  of  wealth  and  culture  who  generously  come 
forward  with  their  subscriptions  to  secure  success.  In  September, 
1892,  the  interior  of  the  Opera  House  was  quite  ruined  by  fire.  It 
seemed  doubtful  if  the  place  could  be  restored,  but  after  ;i  year's  de- 
lay, in  1893  it  was  put  into  condition  again  to  minister  to  its  grand 
purpose  of  lifting  up 
the  public's  taste  to 
1  h  e  v  e  r  y  highest 
achievements  in  the 
musician's  art.  An- 
other immense  build- 
ing distinctly  set  apart 
in  t  lie  interest  of  music 
is  the  Carnegie  Music 
Hall,  intended  only  for 
concerts,  vocal  and  in- 
strumental, having  no 
stage  settings.  It  was 
opened  on  .May  5,  1891 . 
its  cost  being  $1,250,- 

0(H).  It  will  scat  3,000 
people,  and  give  stand- 
i  n  g   r  0  0  in   t  o    1  .<»<!() 

more.  With  so  great 
a  number  of  represen- 
tatives of  nations  noted  for  musical  genius  among  our  citizens, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  there  are  evidences  here  of  an 
earnest  pursuit  of  that  art.  In  June,  1891,  a  Saengerfest  was  held  in 
New  York  for  five  days,  which  proved  to  be  the  largest  singing  fes- 
tival ever  held  in  America  or  Europe.  There  were  delegates  from 
societies  in  twenty-five  cities  of  the  Union,  in  which  there  are  from 
six  to  thirty-six  associations  each,  and  whose  membership  ran  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty.  Madison  Square  Garden  was  made  tin- 
scene  of  the  concerts,  at  which  some  of  the  most  famous  singers  of  the 
world  were  heard.  On  one  of  the  evenings  there  was  a  torch-light 
procession  enlivened  by  open-air  serenades.  In  1SS<>  tin'  Manuscript 
Hub  was  founded,  constituted  by  American  composers,  having  for  its 
object  "  the  advancement  of  musical  composition  in  this  country  and 


M  ET I !  O  TO  L  IT  A  N    or  ERA  IIOlsK. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


549 


the  development  of  honest  and  intelligent  musical  criticism.'*  Besides 
private  meetings  it  gives  occasional  public  concerts,  at  which  the  pro- 
grams consist  of  pieces  rendered  from  the  original  manuscripts,  no 
music  being  performed  that  has  ever  been  heard  in  public  before. 

In  the  service  of  learning  is  soon  to  be  reared  the  New  York  Public 
Library,  which  is  to  be  one  of  our  most  conspicuous  architectural 
ornaments.  In  18SG  ex-Governor  Tilden  died,  and  by  will  left 
seven  millions  of  dollars,  or  the  greater  part  of  his  fortune,  to  admin- 
ister which  a  corporation  called  the  Tilden  Trust  Avas  to  be  created, 
who  should  take  steps  to  found  and  maintain  a  public  library  in  New 
York  City.  The  heirs  at  once  began  litigation  on  the  ground  that  this 
beneficence  was  excessive,  and  in  1891  the  court  decided  the  case  in 
favor  of  the  testator's  natural  heirs.  One  of  these,  however,  had  the 
grace  to  respect  Mr.  Tilden's  wishes.  The  Trust  having  in  the  mean- 
time organized  with  the  remnant  of  half  a  million  from  the  seven 
millions,  the  heir  above  mentioned  added  to  this  two  millions  of  dol- 
lars. In  1895  it  was  resolved  to  consolidate  with  the  Lenox  and  Astor 
Libraries,  to  form  one  great  Public  Library.  The  old  reservoir  a+ 
Fifth  Avenue  and  Forty-second  Street  will  be  removed,  and  the 
library  erected  on  that  site. 

It  was  a  New  York  citizen.  Mr.  James  Gordon  Bennett,  proprietor 
and  son  of  the  founder  of  the  New  York  Herald,  who  sent  forth  Henry 
M.  Stanley  upon  the  quest  after  David  Livingstone,  lost  in  the  jungles 
of  darkest  Africa,  in  1869.  Again,  in  1874,  the  New  York  Herald  and 
the  London  Daily  Telegraph  combined,  dispatched  him  on  the  second 
expedition,  which  resulted  in  his  descent  of  the  Congo  River  from 
the  interior,  and  thus  in  the  ultimate  establishment  of  the  famous 
Congo  Free  State  in  1884.  Explorations  in  the  exactly  opposite  sone 
- — the  Arctic — had  interested  New  York  citizens  in  1851  and  1853;  and 
again  in  this  decade  enlisted  the  sympathy  and  support  of  the  me- 
tropolis, when  Lieutenant  Peary,  with  his  heroic  wife,  left  our  port  to 
repeat  his  Arctic  triumphs  in  1894. 

An  evidence  of  higher  life  again  is  the  multiplication  of  societies 
for  the  express  purpose  of  fostering  ancestral  memories  and  historic 
associations  in  a  city  so  apt  to  whelm  everything  of  that  kind 
beneath  the  onward  rush  of  its  immense  business  interests.  The 
St.  Nicholas  Society  and  the  Holland  Society  were  formed  to  recall 
the  days  of  the  beginning  of  the  city,  linking  lovingly  and  reverently 
the  present  generation  withthe  fathers  that  came  from  the  brave  little 
republic  of  Holland.  The  Holland  Society,  while  quite  as  convivial 
as  its  older  sister,  does  something  more  than  enjoy  banquets.  It  lias 
devoted  time  and  means  to  mark  historic  spots  that  tell  of  the  Dutch 
occupation.  In  September.  L890,  it  pu1  up  bronze  tablets  on  the  build- 
ing at  4  Bowling  Green,  the  site  of  Fort  Amsterdam ;  at  39  Broadway, 
where  Christiaensen  spent  the  winter  of  1613  to  1614;  at  73  Pearl 
Street,  the  site  of  the  City  Tavern  in  1642,  which  became  the  City  Hall 


550 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


in  1653,  continuing  such  till  1700;  and  at  115  Broadway,  the  Boreel 
Building,  the  site  of  Lieutenant-Governor  James  De  Lancey's  house, 
later  the  City  Hotel.  The  Society  have  under  serious  consideration 
the  raising  of  funds  to  place  among  the  many  memorials  to  great  for- 
eigners presented  by  their  countrymen  or  descendants  among  our 
citizens  a  statue  of  William  the  Silent,  the  founder  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
public. 

Benevolence  has  also  many  noble  examples  of  the  munificent  scale 
whereon  citizens  of  New  York  are  in  the  habit  of  practicing  it.  The 
Hospitals  are  legion,  and  it  may  seem  invidious  and  unjust  to  the 
others  to  mention  the  Roosevelt,  or  the  .Maternity,  or  St.  Luke's.  As 
was  noted  before,  to  secure  buildings  for  the  better  pursuit  of  its 


(OI.LKGE  OF  PHYSICIAN'S    AN'I)  SURGEONS,  1887. 


excellent  instruction,  the  ( lollege  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  received 
a  gift  of  #500,000  from  Mr.  William  H.  Vanderbilt  before  his  death. 
Other  members  of  his  family  have  added  large1  sums  for  the  erection 
of  a  hospital  (the  Maternity)  and  other  adjuncts  necessary  to  the 
training  of  medical  and  surgical  experts. 

The  public  school  system  has  recently  added  a  new  feature  of  excel- 
lence. For  some  t  ime  men  who  gave  much  t  bought  to  the  city's  educa- 
tional problem  had  come  to  the  conviction  that  several  high  schools 
should  be  established  in  various  pa  its  of  the  city,  to  relieve  the  pres- 
sure upon  the  City  College.  Young  men  who  could  not  continue 
through  the  course,  and  did  not  intend  so  to  do,  crowded  the 
Introductory  and  Freshmen  classes  to  excess.  This  gave  them 
practically  the  high  school  education  they  wanted,  but  hindered 
the  work  of  those  who   wished   to  achieve  a   ful'   college  course. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


551 


Hence  by  act  of  Legislature,  at  its  session  closing  in  the  spring 
of  1897,  several  high  schools  were  authorized,  and  principals  and 
teachers  for  the  same  have  already  been  appointed.  In  1896  an 
act  of  the  Legislature  abolished  the  Ward  Trustees,  a  system 
giving  to  uneducated  men  many  of  the  most  important  functions 
of  educators,  and  paid  inspectors,  experts  in  school  matters,  have 
taken  their  places.  For  the  sake  of  keeping  pace  with  the  times, 
and  with  the  growing  needs  of  the  city's  increasing  bounds  and 
population,  the  expenditure  of  over  a  million  dollars  was  author- 
ized to  remove  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York  to  a  more  suitable 
location,  and  to  erect  buildings  for  its  use.  The  site  chosen  is  at  One 
Hundred  and  Thirty-eighth  Street  and  St.  Nicholas  Avenue,  the 
grounds  to  extend  to  One  Hundred  and  fortieth  Street  northward, 
and  Amsterdam  (Tenth)  Avenue  westward.  On  the  heights  south  of 
the  valley  of  the  Harlem  Plains  (now  Manhattan  Avenue)  are  already 
seen  the  splendid  proportions  of  the  new  Columbia  University  build- 
ings. The  center  is  occupied  by  the  Library,  the  cost  of  which  is 
|1,000,000,  given  by  President  Seth  Low  as  a  memorial  to  his  father. 
It  is  of  marble,  and  flanked  on  either  side  by  great  structures  of  brick, 
with  stone  trimmings.  The  grounds  stretch  from  One  Hundred  and 
Sixteenth  Street  to  One  Hundred  and  Nineteenth  Street,  and  bet  ween 
Amsterdam  (Tenth)  Avenue  and  the  Boulevard.  A  fine  wooded  cam- 
pus in  the  rear  is  inclosed  by  a  splendid  iron  fence  ten  feet  high,  with 
massive  Scotch  granite  posts,  surmounted  by  urns,  at  every  fifty  feet. 
Barnard  College,  its  annex  for  women,  stands  on  the  Boulevard  oppo- 
site One  Hundred  and  Nineteenth  Street,  fronting  on  the  Boulevard, 
and  with  a  quadrangle  opening  on  One  Hundred  and  Eighteenth 
Street,  whose  piazzas  seem  to  be  intended  to  resemble  cloisters.  On 
One  Hundred  and  Nineteenth  Street, near  Amsterdam  Avenue,  stands 
the  Teachers'  College,  erected  in  1893.  The  New  York  University  has 
also  left  its  historic  pile  on  Washington  Square,  aud  is  erecting  nu- 
merous buildings  upon  Fordham  Heights. 

This,  then,  is  the  city  in  the  year  of  grace  1897.  To  this  it  has  grown 
from  its  days  of  small  things  in  1614,  when  white  men  first  made  a 
habitation  on  Manhattan  Island;  or  in  1020,  when  it  became  the  seat  of 
Colonial  Government;  or  in  1053,  when  it  was  incorporated  as  a  Dutch 
municipality;  or  in  1789,  Avhen  it  was  made  the  capital  of  a  budding 
Republic.  It  has  grown  to  an  immensity  of  physical  magnitude,  cov- 
ering the  island  whose  utmost  southern  tongue  it  barely  filled  with 
houses  even  up  to  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  century;  and 
adding  an  equal  territory  across  the  Harlem  on  the  mainland.  It  has 
grown  to  a  vastness  of  population,  numbering  in  March,  1896,  no  less 
than  1,910.891  souls,  which  places  it  alongside  of  the  few  greatest 
cities  of  the  world.  It  has  grown  to  a  fullness  of  life,  in  commerce, 
industry,  art,  intelligence,  benevolence,  which  has  won  for  it  a  com- 
manding position  among  the  capitals  of  Christian  civilization.  But 


552 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


even  this  showing  does  not  do  justice  to  the  real  Now  York;  hers  is  a 
city  greater  than  that  covered  by  that  name.  Brooklyn  was  a  part  of 
her,  with  a  population  of  a  million  souls,  for  several  years  the  third 
city  in  the  Union.  'Jersey  City,  with  one  hundred  and  seventy  thous- 
and inhabitants;  Hoboken,  with  fifty  thousand;  Yonkers,  with  forty 
thousand;  even  Newark,  with  two  hundred  thousand,  and  more  dis- 
tant Elizabeth  and  New  Brunswick,  must  all  be  counted  as  part  of 
New  York,  made  possible  by  her  greatness.  All  that  territory,  with 
cities,  towns,  and  villages,  within  a  radius  of  at  least  thirty  miles  of 
the  City  Hall,  is  the  real  extent  of  the  City  of  New  York.  These  places 
are  dependent  upon  her  commerce  and  industry;  they  exist  by  the 
business  done  in  her  streets;  they  furnish  residences  to  her  business 
men. 

Heme  for  many  years  it  had  been  the  thought  of  public  spirited 
men  that  justice  should  be  done  to  the  real  state  of  affairs;  that  by  the 
name  of  New  York  a  somewhat  larger  extent  of  that  territory  owing 
its  population  and  business  to  the  city  on  Manhattan  Island  should 
be  designated.  The  proximity  of  a  not  her  State  on  t  he  west  side  of  the 
Hudson  forbade  the  incorporation  of  the  communities  there  existing 
with  the  mother  city.  But  on  the  south  and  east  and  north  no  State 
barriers  interfered;  and  a  movement  was  started  to  include  in  one 
great  municipality  Brooklyn,  part  of  Queens  County,  Staten  Island 
or  Bichmond  County,  and  a  portion  of  Westchester  <  "ounty.  The  orig- 
inators of  this  scheme  may  be  said  to  be  Mr.  dames  S.  T.  Stranahan. 
Brooklyn's  "  first  citizen,"  as  he  is  fondly  called,  and  the  Eon.  Andrew 
H.  Green,  who  was  made  Comptroller  when  the  Tweed  King  collapsed. 
In  1890  the  project  had  advanced  so  far  as  to  obtain  legislative  action. 
The  Legislature  appointed  a  commission  of  eleven,  of  which  Andrew 
B.  Green  was  made  President,  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  con- 
solidating into  one  municipality  New  York.  Brooklyn,  and  contiguous 
towns  and  villages,  and  to  submit  a  report  with  recommendations. 
As  a  result  of  their  work  a  bill  was  prepared  and  introduced  into  the 
Legislature  of  1893,  calling  for  the  submission  of  the  question  to  a 
vote  of  the  people  of  the  cities,  towns,  and  villages  involved.  No 
action  was  reached  at  this  session  upon  the  bill,  but  it  was  passed  at 
the  session  of  L894,  and  on  November  »».  L894,  as  already  related,  the 
people  gave  their  vote.  It  will  be  interesting  to  present  a  record  of 
this  vote: 


 for 

oo.o3s 

against 

59,959 

tt 

64,744 

tt 

64,467 

Queens  County  

.. 

7.712 

4,741 

Richmond  County  

5,531 

tt 

1,506 

Mt.  Vernon  (Citv)  

tt 

873 

1 .003 

East  Chester  (Town)  

a 

371 

tt 

200 

West  ( 'hester  (Town)  

tt 

020 

a 

021 

Pel  ham  (Village)  

tt 

251 

n 

153 

Total   

tt 

177.013 

.. 

133,309 

UiMOHY   OF  THE   REVENTY-EIKST  KECilMENT. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


While  this  larger  consolidation  was  thus  pending,  by  act  of  the 
Legislature  of  the  preceding  spring,  on  June  1,  lb!».~>.  West  Chester, 
East  Chester,  Pelham,  and  Wakefield  (or  South  Mount  Vernon)  were 
annexed  to  New  York  City,  adding  another  20,000  acres  to  her  terri- 
tory, and  making  void  the  plurality  of  one  against  consolidation  in 
West  Chester  township.  But  the  overwhelming  adverse  vote  of  Mt. 
Vernon  seems  to  have  been  respected.  This  annexation  carried  the 
city  line  up  to  the  limit  in  Westchester  County  contemplated  by  the 
commissioners  on  the  Greater  New  York.  Oh  January  6, 1S96,  the  first 
consolidation  act  was  passed.  The  small  excess  in  the  number  favor- 
ing the  project  in  Brooklyn  was  considered,  and  an  amendment  was 
proposed  granting  a  referendum  of  the  bill  to  the  people  of  that  city, 
but  this  was  lost.  By  the  constitution  adopted  by  the  State  iu  1894,  a 
certain  degree  of  home-rule  had  been  conceded  to  cities  by  giving  their 
Mayors  the  privilege  of  vetoing  bills  referring  to  matters  in  which 
they  were  specially  concerned.  The  Consolidation  Bill  was  therefore 
sent  for  approval  or  disapproval  to  the  Mayors  of  New  York,  Brook- 
lyn, and  Long  Island  City.  It  was  returned  with  the  vetoes  of  Mayors 
Strong,  of  New  York,  and  Wurster,  of  Brooklyn,  with  messages  giving 
reasons  for  their  objection.  The  Mayor  of  Long  Island  City,  with  its 
straggling  population  of  about  thirty  thousand,  approved  the  bill.  It 
was  again  passed  over  the  vetoes  of  the  Mayors,  and  the  Governor  ap- 
proved the  bill  on  May  11,  1896,  and  it  became  a  law.  The  Governor 
thereupon  carried  out  the  provision  requiring  him  to  appoint  a  com- 
mission to  draw  up  a  charter  for  the  new  municipality.  It  was  to 
include  the  Mayors  of  the  three  cities,  and  certain  State  officials,  to- 
gether with  "  nine  other  persons,  residents  of  the  localities  under  con- 
solidation." Of  these  nine,  appointed  on  June  9,  1896,  Hon.  Seth  Low 
and  General  B.  F.  Tracy,  ex-Secretary  of  the  Navy,  formed  a  part. 
The  Commission  was  to  have  its  charter  framed  and  reported  to  the 
Legislature  by  February  1, 1897,  the  same  to  be  adopted  by  that  body 
before  it  adjourned.  When  it  had  been  presented  and  approved  by 
the  Legislature,  the  bill  doing  so  was  again  sent,  accompanied  by  the 
charter,  to  the  three  Mayors.  The  Mayors  of  Brooklyn  and  Long 
Island  City  sent  it  back  with  their  approval;  Mayor  Strong  again 
with  his  veto.  This  was  disregarded  by  the  Legislature,  who  passed 
the  bill  adopting  the  charter,  and  on  Wednesday.  May  5,  1897.  I  rover- 
nor  Black  affixed  his  signature.  The  act  of  consolidation  and  the 
charter  of  the  greater  city  is  to  go  into  effect  on  January  1,  1898,  the 
Mayor  and  Council  to  be  elected  in  November,  1897.  The  charter  di- 
vides the  city  into  five  Boroughs:  1.  Manhattan,  covering  the  whole 
of  Manhattan  Island,  the  original  extent  of  New  York.  2.  The  Bronx, 
embracing  all  the  annexed  territory  in  Westchester  County.  3. 
Brooklyn,  cohering  all  of  that  city,  embracing  the  original  territory  of 
Kings  County.  4.  Queens,  embracing  that  part  of  Queens  County  in- 
cluded within  the  territory  of  the  city.    5.  Bichmond.  embracing  all 


554 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREATER  NEW  YORK. 


of  Staten  Island.  The  legal  title  of  the  city  is  to  be  "The  Mayor. 
Aldermen,  and  Commonalty  of  the  City  of  New  York."  Besides  the 
Mayor,  the  city  is  to  be  under  the  control  of  a  Municipal  Assembly 
••(insisting  of  two  houses;  the  upper,  to  be  called  the  Council,  and  com- 
posed of  a  President  and  twenty-eight  members;  the  lower,  to  be 
called  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  composed  of  sixt}-one  members.  The 
whole  area  needs  a  radius  of  twenty  miles,  with  the  City  Hall  in  New 
York  as  a  center,  to  circumscribe  it,  its  precise  measurement  being 
317.7  square  miles.  The  population  is  estimated  to  reach  ou  January 
1, 1898,3,430,000  souls, making  New  York  the  second  city  in  the  world. 
Thus  will  be  realized  the  climax  of  municipal  existence  in  the  >Yest- 
ern  Hemisphere  by  that  quaint  little  town  on  Manhattan  Island, 
lying  back  of  the  palisades  on  Wall  Street,  which  began  life  two  hun- 
dred and  forty-five  years  ago  as  the  City  of  New  Amsterdam. 


mem?1 
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